Goode To Be Back
by DazedDoxie
Summary: Sequel to Goode Luck! Percy and Annabeth are back at Goode along with the seven of the prophecy, Rachel, some new characters, and some old characters. New fun, new drama, read! Sadly, I do not own Percy Jackson. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO series! All rights to Rick Riordan! And so, the sequel to Goode Luck! I suggest reading that one before this one, it might make just a bit more sense... This is a shorter chapter just to kind of ease into the story. I hope to update every few days, and to never go a full week without an update! **

* * *

**Hayden POV- One year ago**

"Are you sure, Rachel?" I asked for probably the thousandth time. The redhead growled and crossed her arms over her old t-shirt.

"Well, nobody's seen him in a week, all his stuff is still there, Annabeth's gone off the deep end… yes I'm sure he's missing!" She burst. Trinity put her hand to her mouth, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. It was still a little weird having her as my girlfriend. After all, we'd been friends for so long. But it was a good, weird feeling.

"You'll find him, won't you?" I asked. Rachel just shrugged.

"We're doing what we can. He's been missing before, you know? He came back eventually. Percy's like one of those dogs that travels miles just to get back to his own home. Don't worry, we'll find him." But she didn't seem all that sure…

**Trinity POV- One year later… **

"Maybe we should go talk to Sally again," I suggested to Hayden. He lifted his head from the essay he'd been writing to look at me. The two of us were working in the library before school started. Swim tryouts were coming up, and Hayden needed to lift his GPA so that he could join.

"We just talked to her a week ago and she still doesn't know where they are."

"A lot can happen in a week, Hayden." He chewed on the end of his pencil.

"Her son and his friends are on a dangerous mission _in Europe _and she has absolutely no idea whether he's going to survive or not. I don't think it's a good idea to keep pestering her and reminding her about that." He had a point… but still.

"It's been a year since Percy went missing, and six months since everyone else decided to take off without warning. I'm going crazy over here!" Hayden reached over and gripped my hand.

"Trin, I'm sure they'll be fine. And besides, if anything happens then someone will tell us."

"But why? We're just the mortals they come to for moral support. I'm not saying I'd rather be in _their_ position, but I don't think telling us about their top secret mission plans is very high up on their to-do list."

"Percy's not the kind of guy who would just leave us wondering what happened. When they know something, we'll know too." I chewed on my lower lip, but said nothing more.

"Really fast, Trinity, I promise!" I groaned.

"Just once can you remember to bring your textbook _inside_ in the morning?" The two of us walked quickly out of the school to go and get Hayden's math book from my car.

"I try, but I fail."

"Well obviously, maybe I should write it on your fore—" I stopped talking, and reached out to grab Hayden's arm.

"What!?"

"Hayden look!" I pointed to a beat-up old blue car pulling into the school parking lot, "Whose car is that?" His eyes widened in recognition.

"No, no way…" Yes way! The car pulled to a stop in an empty space, and the driver's seat door opened. Black hair and green eyes: Percy Jackson.

"Percy!" I yelled. He turned to us with the same, troublemaker smile he always had and waved. Annabeth hopped out of the shotgun seat and took her rightful place beside her boyfriend. Redhead Rachel climbed out of the back and started walking towards us with Percy and Annabeth.

Hayden and I ran and met up with them halfway.

"Where've you been, man?" Hayden said as he hugged Percy. And I'm not talking a dude hug, I'm mean a full on hug-hug. That just shows how worried we've been.

"New Rome, Old Rome, Greece, Charleston, Long Island, the Atlantic Ocean for a little while…" Annabeth listed off, counting on her fingers, "We were in Hell for a while… "

"All that traveling probably did feel like that," I commented. Annabeth and Percy's gaze flickered towards each other for a second.

"No, literally." My jaw fell so far I'm pretty sure it hit the gravel.

"Do we even want to know?" Hayden asked. Percy shook his head.

"No, trust me." Something occurred to me: where was everyone else?

"Hey where is everyone? Clarisse, Grover, the Stolls…?" Rachel licked her lips, Percy shuffled his feet, and Annabeth started messing with her hair.

"Grover, Juniper, and Katie are back at camp repairing all the broken buildings." Rachel said.

"And Chris and Clarisse decided to go back to their old schools." Annabeth added in, "Thalia returned to the Hunters again, and Nico's… well we're never really sure with Nico but he's just hanging around somewhere." Percy started rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Oh, and the Stolls are in prison." Rachel piped up, "They got turned in for a bunch of robberies in the candy store around the corner. They'll probably be out in a few weeks, but they'll go back to camp." Hayden smirked.

"It was bound to happen eventually." Percy let a small smile slip onto his face.

"What about Silena? And Beckendorf?" I asked. A noticeable gloom settled over the three of them. Percy stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down.

"Um… you see… there was a really big war over the summer…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Silena and Beckendorf… they didn't make it." My mind went blank, and my heart fell down into my stomach.

"Oh no… no you're kidding, it's not…" I stammered. Oh my god, Silena… Silena, the girl who'd helped me with my very first boyfriend. Her and her burly, quiet boyfriend that taught me how to use a sword in gym class. They can't have just _died_. Not just like that. Annabeth pursed her lips and squeezed Percy's hand.

"They died heroes." She said quietly, "And they're in Elysium now, together."

"How can you know that?" I asked.

"Nico talked to them down in the Underworld," Percy said, "They asked him to say hi to everyone for them, including you guys." A tiny little smile showed up on his face. Rachel sniffled.

"They're ok now. And that's what matters." She said. Hayden opened his mouth to say something else, but a red pickup truck rolled into the lot and parked next to Percy's car.

"They're here." Annabeth said, then she turned to look at us, "Guys, there are some friends we'd like you to meet."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N I'm sorry this update took a couple days longer than I thought it would, I went out of town and thought I'd have wifi and I didn't. Anyways, here it is!**

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**Jason POV**

"I've got a bad feeling about this, Jason." Piper said as she toyed with the hem of her jacket, "I mean this is… this is _high school._ I haven't exactly had the best experience in high school." I reached over to hold her hand while keeping my other hand on the steering wheel. This car really was great. Not only was it made of celestial bronze (hidden under the paint job of course) it had satellite, a built in phone, microwave, mini fridge, and the ever-so-needed stereo. Leo had really outdone himself.

"Chill out, Beauty Queen," The son of Hephaestus said as he poked his head into the front seat from his place in the back of the four-seat cab, "This is the school where Percy reigns supreme, remember? They have to love us!" If only we could all be as optimistic as Leo.

"Are we almost there? My rear end's about to fall asleep!" Frank called from the bed of the truck where he sat across from his girlfriend, Hazel.

"Yeah! I see Percy!" I yelled back as I squeezed Piper's hand tighter.

Out of all of us, Hazel was probably having the worst anxieties about coming to school. She hadn't been to a real school since the 1940's I think, and back then people weren't as… well… tolerant. Her head was probably filled with images of Dunce hats and whipping rulers. The poor girl had almost jumped out of her skin when she heard that uniforms weren't used anymore. Scandalous was the word she'd used.

I carefully parked the truck next to Percy's beat up blue car and looked at Piper one last time.

"You ready?" I asked. She shook her head, but opened her car door anyways.

"It's about time!" Percy complained. He stood by his car with an arm around Annabeth. Rachel was talking to two kids I'd never seen before. One girl had long, dark brown hair and wide, brown eyes. The boy holding her hand had sandy blonde hair and light blue eyes.

"We hit traffic," I lied. To be honest, nobody had wanted to get out of bed so early besides Frank (who had turned himself into a rooster just for the occasion).

"The apartments just around the corner," Annabeth argued.

"Anyways! Who are these guys?" Leo interjected, clapping me on the shoulder and staring curiously at the two strangers, "Are these the friends you were telling us about, Perce?" Percy grinned proudly.

"Yep! This is Trinity and Hayden." He said, pointing them out, "Trinity's clear-sighted, and Hayden's… not."

"Thanks man, for pointing out how extremely mortal I am." Hayden said drily. The boy shook his head, and held out his hand to me, "Hayden Landin," He introduced himself. His handshake was loose; Reyna likely could've snapped his wrist with a twist of her fingers. But he had a strong build. He was probably a swimmer like Percy.

"Jason Grace," I said, "And this is my girlfriend, Piper." I didn't say her last name. I never did, just in case there were some Tristan McLean fans nearby.

"Hi," She said shyly. Hayden tugged on his girlfriend's hand a little bit to bring her forward.

"This is Trinity," He introduced her.

"And I'm Leo, thanks for mentioning," He said, popping out from behind me and punching my arm, "That's Frank and Hazel trying and failing to hide near the truck." Leo smirked, pointing towards the couple leaning against the car door of the truck. Hayden and Trinity sent them polite waves.

"So Percy… care to explain what's happened over the past year?" Hayden asked his friend. Percy shrugged.

"Later. Tonight maybe?" He looked to Annabeth for confirmation. She nodded.

"We still have the same apartment if you guys all want to go there after school to… catch up." In other words, explain why there were five random strangers suddenly showing up at the school. A low ding sounded behind us.

"Class starts soon, we need to get inside. But we'll talk about this later," Hayden said. The ten of us started walking towards the red brick building. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just the smallest bit nervous at what lay ahead of us. Piper was squeezing my hand a bit too tightly for my comfort.

_"Oh Percy!" _A bubbly, squealing said from somewhere in the crowd of kids in front of us. Percy noticeably winced, and the dangerous maroon color was starting to creep up Annabeth's face. Uh-oh…

A fairly pretty girl bounded her way towards us. She had cinnamon colored hair braided over one shoulder, with some side bangs covering her hazel eyes. The arrogant sneer really ruined what could have been a kind-looking face.

"You're back!" The squealing girl said to Percy, "Where were you?" We already had Percy's cover story memorized, so that none of us would say, "He went on vacation" while another one of us said, "He was in rehab".

"Boarding school, across the country. It's specifically designed for dyslexic ADHD kids," Percy explained, "Excuse me, you're blocking my locker." She leaned her shoulder on what I assumed was his locker.

"What's the rush? You can't spend a few minutes catching up?" She asked with wide, puppy dog eyes.

"We can't actually, we're late." Annabeth spit at her. The girl didn't even flinch at Annabeth's cold hard stare.

"Still with Bottle-Blondie, huh Percy?" The girl said grimly with taunting eyes. Annabeth's fist clenched at her hip where the bronze knife was hidden. Uh-oh…

_Ding!_

"Get to class, kids!" How cliché, saved by the bell.

"Well, bye!" Percy said, and grabbed Annabeth's hand before tugging her into their homeroom. Hazel and Frank shrugged at us before going into a doorway across the hall. Leo wandered off randomly into what I'm pretty sure was a janitor's closet, and Rachel followed Hayden and Trinity down the hall.

"Come on Pipes, we're gonna be late." I said, and pulled her down towards our own homeroom.

"Who was _that?" _She asked with irritation as we sat down. I shrugged.

"Percy mentioned that he had a sort of fan base around here, maybe she was one of them?" I guessed. Piper nodded.

"Annabeth looked like she was ready to rip her hair out," I shuddered at the thought. That girl was scary. I don't know how Percy ever got over how intimidating she was. But I guess the same could be said for Chris and Clarisse.

"We'll sort everything out later tonight I guess."

* * *

**Percy POV**

Really? I couldn't just have one hour back at my old high school without Ms. Preppy Princess showing up? And now Annabeth was irritated, oh joy…

"_The nerve!" _She exclaimed when we arrived in our homeroom, "I thought we sorted this out last year!"

"Well she had an entire year without us to regain her confidence," I reasoned, "Teenage girls have a habit of bouncing back with a vengeance." Annabeth closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"I just spent eight months finding you, and then another month on a dangerous quest with you which involved following into the deepest pit in the Underworld, and battling a giant dirt woman ready to end the world. I'm really not up for a cat fight with Calypso again." I wound my arm around her shoulders and pecked her cheek.

"It'll all be ok Annabeth, you'll see. This year will be great." But with Calypso around, I couldn't be sure.

* * *

I'd like to say I missed having a normal gym class. I mean, after a summer of war, near death, and constantly having to look over my shoulder… well let's just say it should be a relief to have to run around the track a few times without something chasing me.

But what can I say? Gym stinks, post-war or not.

"Line up, bubble butts! Get a move on!" Coach Xeno shouted. Yeah, he was a good swim coach. No, he was not the best person to have a calm conversation with…

Everyone muttered, but lined up in front of Coach. Sadly, Annabeth was not in my gym class this year. Fortunately, Frank was. I just hoped the guy didn't turn into a cheetah when we had to do the mile run. That would be so unfair!

"Jackson! You've returned!" Xeno clapped his hands together, grinning at me, "You trying out for swim team again?"

"You know it, Coach." I said with a confident grin. Xeno smirked.

"My boy, I'll bet my paycheck you're still the fastest man on the team." He winked and rubbed his palms together, "Now then! I want four laps around the track. Get moving!" Everyone grumbled, but started jogging around anyways. Frank kept pace with me near the front of the pack.

"Care to tell me about that girl this morning?" He asked, right off the bat. I shrugged.

"Irritating girl, obsessed with trying to win me over, Annabeth not happy." I gave him the summarized version. Frank winced.

"That's scary." I nodded with wide eyes.

"And you're able to hide!" Frank smirked and pat my arm.

"What now?" I huffed as we jogged under the sun. What now?

"Avoid her as much as possible and hope she catches the drift for once." Frank chuckled and shook his head as we rounded the bend.

"You think that'll work?" I shrugged.

"It's the best I've got, I'm a little preoccupied keeping Annabeth's temper cooled off." I really couldn't risk letting my deadly girlfriend too close to Calypso.

"Heard you're the swimming superstar, Jackson." A random voice said behind us. A guy with muddy brown hair jogged up next to us, "Matt Sloan." He introduced himself; "I joined the team last year when you took off." He said smugly, running a hand over his face.

"Good to know," I raised an eyebrow at the sweaty kid.

"Everyone's saying I'm a shoo-in for captain this year." Matt bragged. Yeah, right. You're talking to a son of Poseidon here!

"We'll see, Sloan." I said calmly. The guy would get his wake up call at tryouts.

"I think you'll be the one seeing something, Jackson." He said coldly, before sprinting ahead of me and Frank. I rolled my eyes.

"Rookie," I joked. Frank laughed.

"He won't know what hit him." He agreed.

* * *

Back in the gym, with everyone dousing themselves with water from the fountain, Coach thought it would be a brilliant idea to do a pull-up contest.

After a couple of guys took turns not really trying, Frank and I went up there and ended in a tie.

"Hey Jackson! I'll go against you!" Guess who said that? Sloan stepped up to the bar next to me.

"How brave, going against a guy who just finished eighty-three." I said drily, "And I will _still_ beat you." Sloan gave that smug smirk of his as he reached up to the bar.

_1…2…3…4… _all the way up to eighty-seven.

"You're up, _Prissy._" Sloan spit as he jumped down. I glared. Suddenly I got a Clarisse flashback… I spit on my palms, and jumped up to the bar.

_1…2…3…4… _right up to eighty-nine. Take that, Sloan!

"Well," I said calmly as I jumped down, "eating your words yet?" I asked. He just rolled his eyes.

"Good job today, Jackson." Xeno grunted, "Hit the showers!"

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

It was really nice to be back at normal school again. Although I did wish I was back at camp, helping with the renovations.

All of us gathered out on the front steps of Goode to go home. Hayden and Trinity decided to come home with us so that we could all catch up on recent events. You know, _got an A on my science test, lost my t-shirt, was attacked by the Earth itself, had grilled cheese for lunch…_

Percy smiled at me as he jogged down the stairs. It was hard to believe we'd already been together for over a year. Not bad for my first real relationship, my first and hopefully my last.

"Hey," He kissed my cheek, "Good first day?" I shrugged.

"It was a normal day," I said. Although that in itself was a very good thing, "How was yours?" He grimaced.

"Some guy with way too much confidence was irritating me." Percy complained, "Apparently he's a _swimming star_ and all that."

"We'll just see about that," I smirked. Percy smiled down at me.

"Bleh, are you two gonna keep giving each other googly eyes or is it safe for other people to come within ten feet of you?" Leo said, covering his eyes with his fingers.

"It's safe, Leo." Percy rolled his eyes and pushed the son of Hephaestus's hand down as Jason and Piper walked down towards us.

"We ready to go yet?" Jason asked. I shook my head.

"We're still waiting on Frank, Hazel, Rachel, Hayden, and Trinity."

"Present!" Hayden called as the five of them joined our little group, "Sorry it took so long, Sloan was being irritating." Percy's jaw clenched.

"Arrogant jerk," I heard him mutter. I squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Percy." Rachel said as she scribbled a pen around on the sleeve of her jacket, "Everyone will see through all his talk soon enough," She joked in an attempt at the Oracle voice.

* * *

Percy, me, Rachel, Hayden, and Trinity drove to the apartment all the demigods (minus Percy) shared in his old blue car. Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, and Hazel all went in Jason's truck that we _certainly_ didn't hijack somewhere in Virginia during our quest.

It wasn't long before the ten of us were gathered around the living room, drinking sodas and throwing popcorn at each other just like old times.

"Ok, ok, ok, seriously, what happened to you guys?" Hayden finally said. Percy took a swig of his blue coke.

"I was kidnapped by a goddess, and me and Jason switched camps for a while." He began. From there, we all took turns retelling the tale of our quest over the country, and eventually over to Rome. I told them about my "fun" experience with Arachne, Leo explained things about Archimedes spheres, and Percy told them about our little journey to Tartarus. We told them about how we had fought our way out of Tartarus while Nico led the group to the House of Hades. Hayden and Trinity gasped when we told them about our battles with the giants.

"You fought _giants?!"_ Trinity exclaimed. I nodded.

"While simultaneously trying to cool off the extremely peeved Romans," Piper added in.

"It helped when Octavian got sat on by one of the giants," Jason said, "After that it was a lot easier to convince everyone that we meant no harm."

"I talked to Nico about him," I said, "Apparently he got convicted of attempted murder because of that thing with Gwen. Now he's spending eternity boiling in a fondue cheese pot." I said cheerfully. Frank whooped.

"It's about time!" Frank got so excited in fact, that he turned into a parakeet and went flapping around the room. It scared the Hades out of Hayden when Frank landed on his shoulder.

"By the way, Frank turns into animals sometimes." Percy laughed. That might have been good to add…


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Sorry I'm taking so long between updates. School, lame excuse but it's the truth. My next update may take a couple days longer because of a class trip, just FYI. **

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**Percy POV**

"You know you're going to make the team, why are you worrying so much?" Annabeth asked from my couch. Swim tryouts were this morning, two hours before school started. Oh joy…

Me, Annabeth, Hayden and Trinity were all driving over together, but she showed up at my apartment at _five in the morning. _I loved her, but five is way too early to be up.

I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth, "Slomb gown be der." I said through a mouthful.

"English please?" She asked with a bemused smile. I gulped and chugged a glass of orange juice.

"Sloan's gonna be there." I repeated. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I never thought I'd see the day the great Perseus Jackson got scared of an irritating mortal." She teased. I plopped down on the couch next to her and kissed her cheek.

"It's _Percy_. Call me Perseus and I'll call you Owl Face." She chuckled.

"Don't change the subject!" This girl was too smart, "Why are you worrying about Sloan of all people?"

"He's irritating, and cocky. I'm not worried about him, I'm dreading him." Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Dreading?" Annabeth repeated, "Big word for such a seaweed brain." I smirked.

"I do have my moments." She rolled her eyes and punched my shoulder.

"Percy, I don't see why you're so freaked out about this guy. He sounds like an overly confident mama's boy that thinks if he scares off the great Percy Jackson, he'll be able to glide his way through the rest of high school." Annabeth said, "It's a common defense mechanism that a lot of teenagers use. Befriend or overcome the most liked or most well known student, then you're life will be a lot easier because you have that connection." Amazingly enough I was able to pay attention to most of what she said.

"Is that what you're doing?" I asked cheekily as I examined one of her curls.

"I could ask you the same thing," She joked.

"Maybe when we were twelve, but now…" She snorted in laughter.

"Be serious, Percy."

"I am! Savior of Olympus two times running, only known son of Poseidon, the great survivor of Tartarus…"

"In case you've forgotten, I was there too." She said grimly.

Me and Annabeth didn't talk about Tartarus much with everyone else. They didn't need to know about all the scary stuff down in that place. We talked about it between the two of us. Annabeth decided it wouldn't be healthy if we just ignored it and kept it all bottled up. Talking about it with her helped make things… well she made it better.

"How could I forget?" She pursed her lips and squeezed my arm.

"Well, compared to that Sloan shouldn't be a problem then, right?" She asked wryly. I opened my mouth to answer, but got interrupted by a small squeal from the kitchen.

"Don't move, I've got to get the camera!" My mom ordered and ran off to her room while Paul stood inside the door with a smirk.

"She's making a slideshow for your wedding," He teased, earning a blush from both me and Annabeth.

"Ok, we're leaving. Bye mom! Bye Paul!" I yelled and pulled Annabeth towards the door, not waiting for mom to return with the camera.

"Good luck out there, Captain." Hayden winked, slapping my shoulder before exiting the locker room. I wasn't captain just yet, Coach would make an "Executive decision" after he'd chosen who would be on the team at all.

I took a deep breath and cracked my neck. It was just swim tryouts. Worst comes to worst I can just slow Sloan down a bit… no, Annabeth would kill me for cheating.

**Annabeth POV**

Trinity and I sat together in the stands waiting for tryouts to start. She was quickly scribbling out some notes she'd forgotten to take last night while I read up a little more on my architecture. I think I'll use those arches for Apollo's temple…

"Look who's here!" A sickly cheerful voice called from the bottom step of the bleachers. Wonderful, the queen of all things evil.

"What are you doing here?" I snapped, slamming my book down on the bench next to me. She held out her perfectly manicured nails to examine them.

"Checking out the team, problem?" She asked and gracefully took a seat on the bench at my feet.

"Just a bit," I muttered. Trinity elbowed me as the guys came out of the locker room. Xeno grunted as he hoisted himself up from his perch.

"Line up, ladies!" He barked, "You're each gonna swim five laps for me to size you up, after that you're doing some head-to-heads, got it?" Half the guys shouted enthusiastically (Percy and Hayden included) and the other half (mostly freshmen) muttered and shuffled their feet.

"Jackson! You're up first!" He shouted, pointing to the pool. Percy took his stance by the pool, adjusting his goggled and preparing to jump. Coach blew his whistle and he jumped in. I clapped and whistled with pride as the other guys watched him swim with wide eyes.

"Lookin' good, Percy!" Calypso shouted, clapping and whooping. I clenched my fists and bit my tongue. She looked back at me with a glint in her eyes. _Not worth it, not worth it…_

Percy finished his laps and pulled himself out of the pool, shaking his hair out as he went. He sort of looked like Mrs. O'Leary when he did that.

"Excellent as usual, Jackson." Xeno grumbled, jotting something down on his clipboard, "Landin! You're up!" Trinity got her turn to whoop and cheer for her guy as he did his laps fast and furious (not as good as Percy though).

"Well done," Xeno said and wrote something else down. As he continued down his list of names, Calypso just kept taunting me.

"Percy's looking really good this year," She drawled.

"Wow, look at his muscles!"

"His hair's cute that way,"

"He just smiled at me!"

"Annabeth, you're looking kind of tense, something wrong?" I cocked my head and smiled sweetly while I strangled her in my head.

"Not a thing," She smirked.

"You know, I bet he's even _more_ cute up close. Maybe I should go find out…" She stood up and brushed her jeans off.

"They're busy, leave them alone." Trinity piped up. Calypso narrowed her eyes.

"Shut up you little brat. Just because it took you eleven years to finally get a guy, doesn't mean the rest of us are gonna wait around on our lazy butts like you did."

"Oh, that's it!" I dropped my book and punched Calypso hard in the face. She glared at me.

"Bring it!" Her falcon nails reached out and raked my cheek. Pfft, I'd had worse. The two of us started fighting. And I'm not talking one of those wimpy catfights you see on TV with hair pulling and hand slapping. Oh no, we were full on wrestling, punching, flipping. Calypso wasn't a good fighter, I barely had a scratch on me. There was a lot of shouting around us, but I didn't listen.

"Annabeth!" A pair of arms grabbed my waist and pulled me away from Calypso. Percy locked my arms down by my sides. He was still wet and he was making the back of my sweatshirt stick to my back.

"Off, Percy!" I shouted.

"Fists away, Annabeth." He said firmly.

"Like Hell I will!" I kicked, but Percy held tight. He didn't have the Achilles Curse anymore, but that didn't mean I wasn't afraid to give him a couple bruises.

"Keep her off my girlfriend, Jackson!" A boy with shaggy black hair and beady eyes said, putting his arm around Calypso's waist. Wait… what? I stopped struggling for a second and blew a piece of hair out of my face.

"Girlfriend?" I repeated, "You're his girlfriend?"

"Sloan?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow at the guy who was apparently, Calypso's boyfriend.

"Surprised?" She asked, wincing as she poked a fair sized bruise I'd given her on her arm.

"Yes, for so many reasons." Percy released me, but I was a little too shocked to attempt to hit her. How could Calypso get a boyfriend?

"CHASE! CIELO!" Xeno yelled up the bleachers, "Office, NOW!" I shut my eyes tightly.

"Oh gods…" I whispered. Percy squeezed my shoulder affectionately.

"I'll meet you in the front after tryouts." He whispered, "Try not to hit anyone on the way there." I resisted the urge to slap his shoulder. That probably wouldn't help matters.

"I'll try," I muttered, grabbing my bag and stomping down the stairs after Calypso.

"A _warning?_ What does that even mean?" Leo asked through a mouthful of pizza.

"It means that if I get two more, I get suspended." I said miserably. Percy wound his arm around my shoulders.

"You're not getting two more warnings. You're an Athena for Zeus's sake!" I let my head fall down on the table.

"With Calypso around, it can't be that hard to get two more." I muttered, head still banging against the plastic wood. Percy pulled my shoulders up.

"I don't want you to get a concussion." He explained. I put my head on his shoulder instead.

"What I can't believe is that Calypso and Sloan are going out," Trinity said, "How long has that been going on?"

"It can't have been long if you two didn't know about it." Piper said. Hayden shrugged.

"Well after Percy and everyone left, Calypso kind of left us alone. And we don't have any classes together either…"

"What does it matter?" Rachel asked, "Isn't this a good thing? Now she'll leave us alone." I shook my head.

"You didn't hear her at swim tryouts." I mumbled.

"I don't think I want to hear this…" Hazel said meekly. Frank pat her hand. They kind of reminded me of an old married couple. Then again, Hazel was born in the 40's…

"The point is, she's relentless whether she's with someone or not. And Sloan didn't seem to care." Trinity said.

"I don't think he even noticed. He was too busy trash-talking me." Percy said bitterly, "_What's with the tiny arms, Jackson? That the fastest you can go, Jackson? Is that your golden retriever in the stands? Oh wait, that's your girlfriend!" _Percy imitated his voice.

"He called me a what now?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Three strikes and you're out," Percy reminded me. I growled.

"Point taken."

**Percy POV**

Hayden and I were really jumpy as we sat on the bleachers, waiting for Coach to tell us who made the team. He thought it was better to tell everyone in person who made it and who didn't. Thankfully I was one of the people that always made the team. It was really embarrassing if you didn't make the team.

"Ok, ladies! Here's the team: Jackson, Landin…" Hayden slapped my hand in congrats while Xeno rattled off more names, "… Johnson, Wilks, and Sloan." Aw Hades. Sloan turned around and gave me a smug, toothy, grin.

"Captain this year… Jackson!" Xeno announced. I returned Sloan's grin, "You pick co-captain and practice times. Get to it." And with that, the fat old man went back into his office to read Sports Illustrated and eat donuts. I stood up and took my place in front of the fifteen or twenty guys who made it.

"Landin, co-captain." I said immediately.

"Who could've seen that coming?" Sloan muttered, but I ignored him.

"Ok, practice days are gonna be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays after school until six. We'll do a morning one before meets." I said. Captaining a swim team was a lot easier than commanding an army, I'll tell you that!

"Three days in a row?" Sloan spoke up, "Little harsh there, isn't it? _Captain?"_ He sneered.

"We've done it that way for years, and we've gone all the way to state for the last three years." Three years in which I was captain, might I add.

"But don't you remember? Last year, you weren't around for state, were you? No, we made it to state _without_ you." I grit my teeth.

"After a half a year with me as captain." I said.

"And another half a year with me as captain." Sloan gloated.

"The decision's been made, Sloan. If you don't like it, the door's right over there." I pointed to the hallway, "Up to you." Sloan was silent. Ha. Ha.

"Alright, I want twenty laps tonight before we leave. Jump in, guys!"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N This chapter is definitely not one of my best. But it's been too long since an update, for that I'm sorry. Real life's just getting in the way, you know? The next update won't take three weeks, promise! **

* * *

**Percy POV**

"Focus, Captain, head in the water." Hayden said that in the morning, as we got ready for practice. Coach decided that it would be better for the team if we did practice every morning, and so it was.

"It's kind of hard, Annabeth's been on edge for the last few days. She can get pretty scary." Annabeth and I spent a lot of time hanging out in my apartment. True, she'd never said it out loud, but it was pretty obvious she was extremely ticked off with Calypso. Like when we were doing homework the other day, she kept on "accidentally" breaking her pencils in half. By the time we were done, she'd gone through an entire box of number twos.

"Maybe Rachel and Trin can help cool her off today." Annabeth, Rachel, and Trinity had come in early with us this morning to study for an English test they had today.

"I hope you're right, Hayden."

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"Ok, what's an example of imagery in the third chapter?" Rachel asked. Trinity tapped her eraser against her chin.

"Well there was something about a tree…" She answered. Rachel chuckled and finished the drawing of the minotaur on the corner of her page.

"Annabeth? You know it?" I blinked, realizing I'd been spacing out.

"Repeat the question?" Trinity coughed in surprise.

"Wow, that strike really messed you up, didn't it?" I sighed and nodded.

"My mom talked to me in a dream the other night. She was so angry, at me and Percy. Ugh, you should have heard her: _I knew the Sea Spawn would be a bad influence on you. How could you be so ignorant? She's a mere mortal! Let her have him! _I was ready to punch _her_ in the face." Thunder sounded outside, "Sorry, Mom." I muttered. Trinity shivered.

"Ok, I'm still not used to that." She said under her breath, "But that doesn't matter. What does matter, is that you're still wound up waaay too tight." I pursed my lips.

"I'm not that tense am I?" Rachel and Trinity shared a look.

"Percy's scared of you."

"Good." Rachel smirked.

"That's more like it," She complimented. A small smile showed up on my face.

"I'm just extremely irritated. I know Percy would never leave me, but I'd rather not have a Calypso in my face everyday, all day."

"So just ignore her," Trinity suggested, "My mom always says that if you ignore someone long enough they'll go away." With my hubris, that was hard to do.

"I'll try. But I won't like it." I grumbled, "But anyways, what was the question?"

* * *

After about fifteen minutes of alternating between studying and watching practice, my patience was put to the test. Calypso decided to show up to watch "Sloan" swim.

"Hey ladies," She said, planting herself right in front of us. We all muttered good mornings towards her, "So Annabeth, I've been meaning to ask you: who dyes your hair?" Ha, she thought I cared what I looked like. Instead of answering, I wrote down an answer on my study guide, "Oh, I see, the old ignoring me trick?" She sneered.

"We're trying to study." Rachel said calmly. Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, nerds." And proud of it.

We got another ten minutes of concentration before she tried to irritate us again.

"The guys are looking pretty good today, huh?" She said, "I mean just _look_ at Percy's abs." Keep your calm, Annabeth, keep your calm… Calypso frowned when she didn't see me react. She tried a different route, "You know, Trinity, Hayden's not looking too bad either." Oh no. Trinity was one of the sweetest, most pacifist people on the planet… unless you mentioned Hayden. Her eye twitched and she stayed silent.

"I never really noticed before, but he's got some nice biceps there." She hefted her chin up smugly, knowing that she was irritating Trin. I put a hand on Trinity's shoulder as Calypso continued her rant. This was getting ridiculous…

"I can't believe you waited this long to get him to go out with you. Pathetic." Trinity was shaking, whether it was from anger or her feelings had been hurt, I had no idea.

"We're sort of trying to study over here…" Rachel muttered. Calypso rolled her eyes and continued to talk about how cute Hayden was, how stupid Trin was, etc. etc. What really put things over the edge, was when she poked at Trinity's insecure side.

"He still looks at you like you're his friend and nothing else. You two will never last." The malicious smile on her face proved that she knew that had done it. Trinity stepped up onto the bench so that she was nose to nose with the taller-than-her Calypso. There was fire in her eyes and her fists were clenched so tight her knuckles weren't just white, they were fluorescent.

"You listen to me, Calypso. I don't care what you say or do, you are not going to ruin my year. You're nothing more than a glorified, spoiled brat that isn't satisfied with her own life so you feel the need to intrude on the lives of others just so that you can feel more privileged. Well too bad for you, that won't work. Hayden loves me, Percy loves Annabeth, and quite frankly none of us are even close to _liking _you. So lay off before I make you lay off." It was almost a funny sight, Trinity with her pigtail braids and "World Peace Initiative" T-shirt, standing on top of a metal bench just to get close to the face of sneering Calypso.

"Honey, you have no idea what I've got in store for this year." Calypso stated, "Now get out of my way," And that's when she called Trinity something that you don't always hear in civilized conversation.

That's also when Trinity brought her hand up, and slapped Calypso so hard across the right cheek that a red imprint of her hand showed up.

"ZIMM!" Oh gods…

* * *

"Wait a sec… _Trinity _has a warning? This chick, right here?" Leo asked, pointing his thumb towards her. We were all sitting around the table at lunch talking about that morning. Surprisingly, Trinity didn't seem all that shaken up about it.

"The good thing is that Calypso got a warning too, and that's her second." Trinity explained, "One more and she's suspended."

"Way to go, Trin! Taking one for the team!" Percy said, thumping her on the back. I smiled at her.

"Now you and me are in the same boat." I said. Trinity grinned.

"We can make T-shirts or something," She joked sarcastically.

"Hey, I want a T-shirt! Let me go knock over one of those chess team kids…" Piper laughed. Before anyone else could interject with a witty remark, the bell rang. Percy growled.

"Greek class," He grumbled, "We have a quiz today, I didn't study!" It took all of my willpower not to slap my own forehead.

"Percy."

"What?"

"We are children of Greek gods, remember?"

"Oh… right." Frank snorted in laughter.

In our class were Percy, Hazel, Frank, Piper, and me. Calypso too, sadly. The five of us took our places along the side window while Calypso flounced in and sat down in the back corner where the "cool kids" sat. That's what she thought, anyways.

"Come now, kids. We have a quiz to take care of today, chop chop!" The teacher said to try to get everyone to stop talking and sit down. It usually didn't work.

"Έτσι Ανναμπεθ, ποια είναι τα σχέδια μας για απόψε?" (So Annabeth, what are our plans for tonight?) Frank asked me.

"Ίρις-μηνυμάτων απόψε Χείρωνα μας για το check in Ακριβώς μια βασική έκθεση, το ξέρεις; Τι τέρατα μας επιτέθηκαν, έχουν συναντήσαμε άλλα ημίθεους, κλπ. κλπ." (Chiron's Iris-messaging us tonight to check in. Just a basic report, you know? What monsters have attacked us, have we met any other demigods, etc. etc.) I answered back in Greek. Ms. Cerubla would get mad if she heard anything other than Greek in this class. Lucky for us, nobody could speak it since she was such a horrible teacher, so we were free to speak about our demigod lives freely.

"Θα θέλει να ακούσει για Calypso?" (Will he want to hear about Calypso?) Hazel asked timidly. I shook my head.

"Είναι απλά ένας θνητός, ο ίδιος θέλει να ξέρει για κατασκήνωση που σχετίζονται με τα πράγματα, όχι ασήμαντη εφηβικό δράμα." (She's just a mortal, he wants to know about camp-related stuff, not petty teenage drama.) Percy turned around in his chair to look at me.

"Τι είναι αυτό; Χείρων δεν θέλουν να ακούσουν για ασήμαντα προβλήματα μας; Ωχ." (What is this? Chiron doesn't want to hear about our petty problems? Ouch.) He joked. Piper chuckled.

"Αν doesn 'περιλαμβάνουν κάποια ψυχωτική τέρας που έρχονται μετά από εμάς, ή ένα θυμωμένο θεό μας με γυρίσματα αστραπές, τότε αμφιβάλλω το παλιό άλογο θα θέλουν να σπαταλήσουν το χρόνο ακρόασης. Παίρνει πιθανότατα αρκετά από ότι από την καμπίνα Αφροδίτη." (If it doesn' involve some psychotic monster coming after us, or an angry god shooting us with lightning, then I doubt the old horse would want to waste time listening. He probably gets enough of that from the Aphrodite cabin.) She had a point there.

"Attention, children! Class started ten minutes ago!" And then we all had to be silent. What we didn't know then, that I wish I had, was that Calypso had taken Greek classes while we were gone, and she had understood some of what we'd said.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Eh, this was more of a filler than anything else. But whatever, enjoy!**

* * *

**Calypso POV**

I'm so confused… you see, over the summer my mom got me this Greek instructor. It was a woman she'd once done a photo shoot with. She was sort of odd; I don't really remember her face. Was she blonde? Did she have blue eyes? At first I thought she looked like my mom, but then she started to sort of look like a girl version of Percy in my head. Oh whatever, I'd probably had a bad taco or something.

Anyways, she taught me this weird version of Greek. She said it was older than what I learned in school, but it would work enough to fool my stupid teacher.

I realized that Percy and his group of losers spoke _that_ kind of Greek. I hadn't learned a lot of it over the summer so I could only understand part of the stuff they said.

"…plans… tonight?"

"…Iris… check in… attacked us… demigods…." Wait... what?

"…want… Calypso?" They were talking about me?

"…mortal… camp-related… teenage drama."

"…Ouch."

"…psychotic monster… angry god… horse… Aphrodite…" Aphrodite? Gods? Monster? These guys were weirder than I thought. I will definitely have to keep my eye on them. Something weird is going on.

* * *

It turns out that I didn't have to wait long for another incident.

Everyone was eating lunch in the cafeteria. Sloan was throwing tater tots at his buddies while my girls talked about the new trend they'd seen going around. Meanwhile, my eyes were trained on Percy's table. Ugh I hated how him and that blonde looked so happy together. _Annabeth._ Bah, I'm so much prettier! Plus I'm popular, too. Percy and I would be shoo-ins for Prom King and Queen if he would just dump her…

Someone screamed. A second later, a Doberman burst into the cafeteria. It started growling at Percy's table, and stalking towards it. While the other students tripped over each other trying to reach the exit, I stayed where I was and ducked under the table.

Ok, now that's weird. Where did Percy get that bat? And… is Annabeth hitting that dog with a hairbrush? What in the…

Between one blink and the next, the dog vanished. All of the people that Percy had been hanging around with all year suddenly had new cuts and scrapes. They were all holding some kind of weird object. That blonde boy had a baseball bat like Percy's, and the Latino Elf guy had what looked like a screwdriver.

I didn't think about what I did next. I jumped up from under my hiding spot and stomped right over towards Percy.

"What just happened?" I demanded with my hands on my hips, "Some random dog comes in and then vanishes after Annabeth hits it with a hairbrush… a-and you have all these weird cuts suddenly…" The entire group of them froze and stared at me. The Native American girl, Piper, stepped forward and snapped her fingers.

"A dog got in, and attacked us. The dog catchers just came and took it away." As she spoke, the images filled my head. I remembered two men in white uniforms hauling the dog into a van, after it had taken a few swipes at these guys. How had I forgotten about that?

"Oh… right. I forgot."

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"We need to be more careful." I said that night. Everyone was hanging out in our apartment talking about Calypso. It wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my evening.

"Yeah, Calypso almost caught us today. If it weren't for the wonders of the Mist." Percy grumbled.

"We're being as careful as we can! It's not like we can control when we're attacked." Leo pointed out through a mouthful of potato chips.

"He has a point," Hazel said, "We're demigods. The danger of the secret coming out sort of comes with the territory, doesn't it?" Frank nodded.

"I think the best thing we can do right now is just to try and convince her that there isn't anything going on." He said thoughtfully.

"How exactly are we going to do that if a monster attacks us every other day?" Percy asked.

"We've been lucky so far, and the attacks have been outside of school… up until today." Jason said, "I think we should just keep going as we have and pray to Zeus…"

"… or Poseidon…"

"… or Hephaestus…"

"… or Athena…"

"Ok, ok! We will pray to the god of our choice," Jason amended, "that life stays calm whenever we're near Calypso."

"You know what else we could do?" Rachel wiggled her eyebrows and held up her blue, plastic hairbrush. Annabeth held her hand up and high-fived her.

"We don't need any more strikes around here." Trinity said in a motherly tone, but her eyes were twinkling too.

"Well, if there's no proof…" Hayden joked.

"We're not gonna hurt her," Percy said, but his voice was wavering, so it was still on the table… sort of.

"So we're just going to sit here and hope for the best?" I asked incredulously. Percy sighed, but nodded.

"That's exactly what we're gonna do. Should a problem come up, we'll deal with it then." Jason said. I huffed.

"Wonderful."

* * *

**Trinity POV**

A locker slammed on my right and I jumped as Calypso appeared next to me.

"Tell me." She demanded. My heart pounded, but I tried not to let it show.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Does my voice always shake that bad? Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Don't play innocent because we both know that you are anything but." On the contrary, Hayden told me that I was the most innocent person at the school.

"What do you want, Calypso?" She narrowed her eyes down at me.

"I know something weird is going on, and I want you to tell me what it is." Like I would do that.

"You're crazy," I scoffed and walked past her. She walked behind me, continuing to be a pest.

"I'll find out eventually! The truth can't be hidden forever!" This secret has been held for centuries, I'm sure it will hold out for a while longer.

"Why don't you go polish your nails or something?" I muttered, "And leave me alone!"

"Oh, baby gonna crack?" Calypso asked maliciously, "Why don't you just give in and tell me?"

"Because it's none of your business." I said calmly, "Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to go to class."

"Well me too, but this seems much more important." Where was Annabeth when I needed her? "Look, I heard Percy and those other people talking in Greek class, they were talking gibberish about horses and gods and other weird stuff." I tried not to let her see my panic.

"They were probably playing the gibberish game, where we try to say something more random than the next person." I lied. I was a terrible liar, and Calypso knew that.

"If you're not going to tell me, I'll find someone who will." She snapped, and pranced in the opposite direction. I sighed, and tried not to hit my head on the door.

* * *

**Calypso POV**

"I just don't _get_ it! What don't they want me to know?" I obsessed. Matt and I were sitting in my room pretending to study for our math test tomorrow, but really we were just watching TV.

Honest? I'm not that into Matt Sloan. Sure, he's kind of cute. I can tolerate him, he isn't a total idiot. I just figured that him and Percy are such bad enemies he'd make Percy jealous.

It hasn't been working.

So here I am, ranting to him about my problems while Percy and little Miss Perfect were off on a romantic date or something.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Whatever it is can't be that interesting. I mean come on, it's _Jackson."_ Sloan said his name with disgust.

"Why don't you like him?" I asked.

"Why do you?" Touché, Sloan, touché.

"I'm not going back and forth like this again. All I know is that they're hiding something, and I want to know what." He sighed and slumped back.

"Just chill out and stop worrying about it. Focus on the sweet party we're having this weekend, that'll get your mind off things." He said. A light bulb went off in my head.

"Brilliant!" I said and kissed his cheek, "We can invite them to the party so that I can see if they do anything weird!" He groaned and fell face forward onto the carpet.

"I don't want a bunch of _losers_ there." He whined, "It'll make the party lame."

"In case you've forgotten, Percy's popular." Having him there would probably get even more people to come. Girls didn't really show it anymore since Annabeth showed up, but Percy was still the most desired boy in school. But if anyone ever puts the moves on him, Annabeth will bite their hand off. I was the only girl left who was still going after him.

"Well it's my house, and I'm inviting them." I said firmly. He griped about it for a little while longer, but eventually just shut up and went with it.

* * *

**Percy POV**

"Why do we have to go? The last place I want to be on a Friday night is _her _house!" Calypso had approached us earlier to invite us to her pool party this weekend. There was an evil look in her eyes, so we all knew she was up to something.

"She probably wants to spy on us, see if we do something unordinary." Annabeth said, "The best thing that we can do right now is go and prove to her that we're just as dull as she is, even if we're not."

"But what if something happens and just makes her more curious?" Rachel asked, "She's still curious, even after we used the Mist on her."

"By the way, doesn't that mean she's a demigod or something if the Mist doesn't work?" Trinity asked. Annabeth shook her head.

"She saw that hellhound as a Doberman, so she's not clear-sighted. There's no way she's a demigod either. Piper probably administered the Mist a little weaker than it should have been."

"Hey! I did my best! I'm still new at this, you know." Piper said indignantly. Annabeth held her hands up.

"No harm done, just a hard fact. Like it's a fact that Percy's a Seaweed Brain or Hazel knows the least about the internet."

"Internet?" Hazel cocked her head.

"It's a gift from the gods," I joked.

"My point, exactly." Annabeth said smugly. I elbowed her in the ribs, and in return she jabbed my spleen.

"Ew, affectionate pain. You two make me want to throw up." Leo joked, miming the action. I rolled my eyes and returned my arm to Annabeth's shoulder.

"Get over it, Valdez."

"Back to the point!" Frank finally said, "I don't see why all of us have to go to this thing,"

"There's strength in numbers." Annabeth replied calmly, "If it turns out to be some sort of monster trap, then we'll need all the fighters we can get, and that's you guys." Frank pursed his lips.

"I've had bad experiences with high school kids before." He shuddered, "They scare me. The last thing I want to do is hang around a whole bunch of them outside of school." Hazel put her hand on his shoulder and nodded.

"We'll talk about who has to go later," I said, "But I'll side with Annabeth on this one. We need to prove to her that nothing's wrong so that she'll lay off."

"It's settled then," Jason said, "We're going to a party."


	6. Chapter 6

**Percy POV**

"How do I look?" I turned around to face Annabeth, who was lying with her head hanging over the side of my bed. She analyzed my jeans and a green t-shirt.

"Like a plain human boy." She answered.

"Perfect." Annabeth smiled and flipped over onto her stomach. She was in jeans and a plain grey t-shirt with her hair in a ponytail, yet somehow she looks more glamorous than any model I'd ever seen. I walked over to sit next to her.

"I really don't want to go tonight." I whined for about the fiftieth time. Annabeth laid her head in my lap and looked up at me.

"Me neither, but if we don't go she'll just get more suspicious because of the last-minute cancellation." I ran my fingers through her soft hair.

"Promise me that you won't get jealous when she hits on me, because we both know she will." Annabeth's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"No promises on that one, but I won't hit her." I grinned at her and bent to kiss her forehead. I frowned, there were extremely dark circles under her eyes, and her nails were bitten.

"You don't look so good." I blurted out, then realized that it didn't sound all that good, "I mean you look tired. No! No I mean that you look unhealthy. No, no not that! Um…" She smirked up at me.

"I know what you mean." She said. Good thing my girlfriend had a sense of humor, "I just haven't been sleeping so well." I could guess why.

Annabeth and I didn't talk about Tartarus. We'd been on dangerous missions before, but this time was different. Usually I had a gut feeling that we'd make it out in the end, but that time I'd had absolutely no idea. We were alone, helpless, and in way over our heads. If Annabeth hadn't been there with me… I shuddered. She reached up to cup my cheek.

"Thalia's been getting pretty mad. Apparently I scream sort of loud when I'm having a nightmare." I tugged on her hair affectionately.

"Why don't you Iris-Message me? Or just break in, I know you've done that before." Her cheeks got a little bit pink.

"I'm a big girl, Percy. I think I can take a nightmare or two." Her voice wavered just a little bit.

"Annabeth, next time just IM me. I need to know you're ok just as much as you need to know I am." She pretended to pout, but I saw the relief in her eyes.

"Ok." She whispered. A flash erupted from the corner of the room.

"Oh!" My mom cooed, "That one's for the wedding slideshow!" Annabeth sat up instantly and blushed.

"See you later, Mom." I muttered in embarrassment, and led Annabeth by hand out the front door.

"Have fun!" She called, taking yet another picture.

* * *

"I hate seeing rich people houses." Piper grumbled as we pulled up to Calypso's mansion. Her mom was a famous model, and they owned this really big house just outside of the city, "They remind me of home too much."

"One thing's for sure," I said as we parked and hopped out, "This place puts my apartment to shame." Annabeth chuckled. I reached out and took her hand as we all walked up to the front door. Sounds of music and splashing flowed back to us.

"Sounds like one big party," Leo said, already bouncing to the beat. Oh Leo…

"Welcome!" A perky voice said behind us. We turned to see Calypso in a bright pink bikini and one of those white skirt things that girls wear to the beach. Why anyone would have a pool party in October…

"I'm sooo glad you could come." She said, but her eyes narrowed like a cat, "Follow me, the party's in the backyard." Before we could react she reached out, and pulled my arm. Annabeth let go of my hand and glared while I stumbled awkwardly behind Calypso.

"Hurry up, slow poke!" She giggled and opened up the gate.

I'll admit, her backyard was impressive. It was the size of a football field, with a rectangular pool to one side complete with a diving board. A gazebo nestled in the back corner in the middle of a flower garden. A stone patio held a table filled with party snacks, a DJ playing music, and about a hundred dancing teenagers. The entire place was strung up with Christmas lights. It was obviously a professional job.

"Nice place," Annabeth commented dryly as they caught up to us. I slipped my arm out of Calypso's grasp and returned it to it's rightful place around Annabeth. Calypso didn't look too pleased with that, but I didn't really care.

"Please, make yourselves at home." Well that's what she said, but it sounded more like _get out or I'll feed you to my snake_. I hope she doesn't have a snake.

"Thanks for the invite." I said. What? I have manners! Sometimes, that is. She beamed.

"No problem! My pleasure, actually." She clapped her hands, "Now then, disperse! Mingle, dance, swim, go party!" And with that she disappeared, probably to someplace she could spy on us in peace.

"Yo Jason, I see artificially flavored cheese snacks over there." Leo wiggled his eyebrows and pointed to the snack table.

"I'm in, come on Pipes!" Jason dragged her after him and Leo.

"Let's go check out the garden." Hazel said. Frank didn't look too excited, but he followed her anyways. That left just me, Annabeth, and Rachel.

"I guess I'll just… go that direction to avoid an awkward third wheel silence." Rachel said with a wink, and sprinted away. Annabeth squeezed my hand nervously.

"What now?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Want to dance?" I asked, almost sarcastically. Annabeth chuckled.

"We are battle-trained warriors, not dancers." I fake-gasped.

"Are you doubting my moves?" I joked.

"You have moves?"

"Why yes, yes I do." I said proudly. Did I? Doubtful…

"Prove it then." Annabeth said smugly. It was pretty likely she knew how to dance, seeing as she was good at everything.

"I will." Why the Hades did I say that?! Annabeth tugged my arm down to the crowd of dancing teenagers.

"We'll slow things down for just a little bit here," The DJ said, changing to a slower paced song. Thank the gods, this was dancing I could do. What guy couldn't just stand there and move side to side? Annabeth put her hands around my neck and I put mine on her waist and we started to sway among the crowd.

"So, these are your impressive moves, huh?" Annabeth teased.

"They are just as good as yours." I argued weakly. She chuckled and put her chin on my shoulder.

"Remember that time we had to dance when we got Nico and Bianca from their school?" She asked. I nodded. It was hard to forget my first dance with Annabeth. I had been so nervous then, and so scared just from being that close to her. It was kind of hard to believe, looking back at it.

"And then that time on Olympus too, after we returned the Ophiotaurus." I whispered that so that the people around us couldn't hear what I said. I doubt the words _Olympus _and_ Ophiotaurus_ wouldn't sound all that normal to people.

"You kept stepping on my toes." She chuckled.

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have such big feet, it would be easier to avoid them." I joked. I swear I felt her roll her eyes at that one.

"That was a terrible comeback." She muttered.

* * *

**Calypso POV**

I sat next to Sloan on the patio, watching Percy and Annabeth on the dance floor. Ugh, they looked so in love I wanted to vomit. I still don't understand what he could possibly see in her!

"Still staring at him?" Sloan asked. Was that jealousy in his voice?

"I'm just seeing if they do anything weird," I lied.

"Uh-huh, sure." I raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I asked accusingly. He sat up.

"You know exactly what that means. I know you have a crush on Jackson!" I gasped. Of course he was right, but was I gonna admit it? No way, then I'd get dumped and my place on the social pyramid would go down a step.

"Of course I don't! I told you, I got over him last year." Man, I was a good liar. I should get an award for this kind of stuff.

"Whatever, Calypso." Sloan grumbled, and stood up.

"Matt? Where are you going?!" He started walking through the dancers as the song ended and Percy and Annabeth stepped apart. Not a lot, but enough that you could tell whose limbs were whose.

"Yo, Jackson!" He snapped. Percy looked up, and the change in his expression was so fast, for a second there I considered a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of scenario.

"What do you want, Sloan?" He didn't answer. He walked up to Percy with all eyes on him, and brought his fist up to Percy's jaw.

But Percy wasn't there, he'd ducked his head. Nobody was that fast!

"Hey!" Annabeth yelled, "What was that?!"

"Me, trying to knock out your little boyfriend." He answered. He took another swipe, but Percy ducked again. He stood protectively in front of Annabeth, even though Sloan wasn't after her.

"Oh I'll show you how to knock someone out alright!" Annabeth jumped past Percy and lunged for Sloan, but someone reached out and grabbed her before she could. It was that one weird redhead girl um… Rachel Dare, that's it.

"Don't bother, he isn't worth it." Rachel said. Annabeth still had a fire in her eyes, but she wasn't swinging yet.

"Matt Sloan!" I yelled, "Get off my property!" Hey, better I break up with him, than him with me.

"B-but Calypso!" He sputtered.

"There will be absolutely no hitting at my party, now shoo!" Sloan glared at us all one last time then stomped off.

"Um… thank you?" Percy said. I beamed at him. He was so cute when he was confused!

"Absolutely! Enjoy the party!" There was no way they'd do something weird if I was around, so I had to resort to watching from out of sight.

"Um… ok…" Annabeth narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but didn't make any comments as she dragged Percy away. He was so whipped. Of course he'd be whipped with me too, but at least it would be me and not that bottle blonde.

* * *

_Two hours later…_

Ok, this is getting kind of dull. All they do is talk! And talk…. And talk… Yawn fest! I almost wished I'd let Sloan beat him up.

I was just about to give up and go away when I heard someone yelling.

"Paint ball on the front lawn!" Everyone started whooping and racing each other out of the backyard.

"Well it's about time!" I said out loud, and ducked underneath a table while everyone else ran away.

Everyone except the losers and Percy, of course.

I watched from my hiding spot as they all gathered around the swimming pool with their random junk: the baseball bat, the hairbrush, the butter knife, all that weird crap. There was a splashing, and inside the pool was what looked like… a goldfish? Ok…

"What is he doing here?" Annabeth asked, looking down at the goldfish.

"I thought he was on Olympus." Frank said, looking at Percy. Olympus? Is that some kind of pet store or something? I almost fainted when Percy shrugged off his shirt and jumped in the water. The goldfish started swimming really fast around Percy.

"So did I," Percy said. Annabeth knelt down on the side of the pool and Percy kicked towards her.

"It was probably some minor godlings playing a trick or something." Jason said thoughtfully.

"We can just call my dad to take Bessie back up." Percy said. The goldfish mooed.

Wait, what?

"It's a dude, Perce. Remember?" Leo knocked on Percy's head.

"The name still stuck, though." Percy argued. Ok, now I'm confused. There's a mooing goldfish named Bessie that's a dude in my pool? What did Percy's dad have to do with it anyways? I mean, last I remember he left when Percy was a baby and nobody's heard from him since. But Percy was talking about him like he was just at home sipping tea in front of the fire or something.

What in the world is going on?

"Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly. Pretty soon everyone's gonna realize there's no paintball out front." Rachel said when she came running back, "I told them that someone would bring the guns out in a few minutes. That gives us enough time to disappear." Annabeth gave Percy her hand and pulled him out of the water.

Ok… that's so weird. Why is he totally dry?! It must be the light or something.

"We could just use the Hermes Express." Leo suggested. Frank nodded.

"It's the fastest way to get this done, anyone have a sticky note?" Rachel pulled one out of her pocket along with a sharpie.

"An artist's always prepared." She said proudly.

"If you have paper, then why do you draw on your pants?" Hazel asked. Rachel shrugged.

"Artistic preference." Percy scribbled something onto the note, and then threw it into the water.

"Ok, someone who isn't on Hermes bad side—that means not you, Annabeth, and not me—, please start praying." Um… praying? I never took Percy for a religious type.

"What did you do to him now, Perce?" Piper asked repetitively. Percy turned red.

"Well I certainly didn't cause a small hurricane that made the roof of his cabin collapse when the Stolls put worms and mud in my bed last week." He said with embarrassment. Stolls… Stolls… those two twin weirdo's that left last year when Percy did? Hurricane? There weren't any reports of a hurricane last week.

"Oh Percy, classic." Jason chuckled and closed his eyes. I turned to look at the goldfish, but it was gone! Did the filter suck it in? And where was that note Percy threw in the water? Weren't they going to call his dad or something?

"Come on, let's get out of here before they realize we lied." Rachel said.

"Movie night at our place?" Annabeth asked.

"Just no chick flicks, please." Percy begged.

"I have to agree with that," Piper said. Frank started arguing about how tearjerkers were the best kind of movies while they walked away.

Once they were gone, I slid out from underneath the table and rushed over to the pool. It was absolutely empty, minus a few plastic cups and leaves here and there.

I'm not sure what just happened, but what I do know is that I'm going to find out.

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

After a LOT of debating, arguing, and telling each other who-saved-who's life, we finally agreed on a movie. It was one of those action thrillers with a hot male lead who has a few romantic scenes, so everyone was happy. Leo popped five bowls worth of popcorn, and then claimed two of them for himself. Piper and Jason lay on their stomachs in front of the screen while Frank and Hazel claimed the loveseat under the window. Rachel curled up in the armchair with Leo at her feet, so me and Percy got the couch.

One of the first scenes of the movie was a semi-mushy love scene, so my mind started to wander.

It was really weird. I never really got these "relax and watch a movie" moments growing up. It was always training, campfire, something demigod related. If a stranger were to walk into the room right now and see us, they would think we were just a bunch of teenagers hanging out on a Friday night (minus the fact that Percy was making water in the glass on the table spin around in a little mini tornado).

Thanks to ADHD, my mind wandered to Percy, who right now had his head down in my lap, eyes totally glued to the screen. As much as he denied it, I knew he was a sucker for romance movies. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that a woman basically raised him on her own. Sure, Smelly Gabe was there, but we didn't really talk about him. Whatever it was, I loved that about him.

You know, I don't really blame Calypso (and pretty much every other girl in the school, though they didn't showcase it) for having a crush on him. Percy was kind of perfect. He's so selfless, and funny. The fact that he was totally oblivious was sort of endearing, and saved him from being a stereotyped hero. Not to mention the fact that he was a looker. Percy was hot in that natural kind of way. Though his messy hair and glittery green eyes weren't the reason I fell for him… well, not the whole reason anyways. Maybe 5% of the reason. Actually if I were to calculate that out I'd have to configure how his personality tied in with the look he got in his eyes sometimes. Oh gods I wish I had my calculator on me right now…

But then something in the movie, and I stopped thinking about math and started thinking about how the special effects in this movie were so lame the Stoll brothers could have done it better.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N THIS IS ONLY A FILLER CHAPTER! ****_It is very short and it is very boring!_**** The next chapter will be a lot more interesting, and it will also be up THIS WEEKEND! Promise! **

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

All of us went to Percy and Hayden's swim practice Monday morning. Things with Calypso were getting serious, and we needed to deal with it. Now.

"I just don't understand. We're demigods! We've been hiding from mortals for centuries! How hard could it possibly be to get _Calypso _off our case?" I ranted. I sat next to Percy outside the boy's locker room as we waited for Hayden to come out.

"Pretty hard, apparently." Percy grumbled. He scribbled another fake answer onto his math worksheet.

"Why didn't you just finish that last night when I finished my homework?" I asked, shaking my head. Percy blushed.

"I was a little bit preoccupied watching you do your homework." He admitted. If it weren't Percy, I would find that creepy. Somehow he made it seem endearing.

"You guys ready?" Hayden came out of the locker room in his swimsuit and goggles.

"Yep." The three of us walked down the hall to the pool where the others sat. Percy's team was already doing warm-up laps in the pool. They wouldn't be able to hear us under the water. Percy and Hayden told them that they needed to "supervise" how all of them swam. Sloan didn't seem too happy about that, but didn't object.

"What are we supposed to do about this?" Piper asked, "Calypso doesn't seem to be getting the message that _nothing is happening!"_

"Maybe that's because something is happening." Rachel said drily, "Why not take her to Chiron and have him work a little Mist magic on her?"

"And risk taking her to camp? Ha! No way." I said, "Besides, if we tell Chiron about her he'll rethink letting us go to school here."

"You know, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to tell him…" Leo said, "I haven't had much luck with the girls here."

"You never had any with the girls at camp either." Jason reminded him.

"At least there I was a head counselor and not just a woodshop nerd."

"Ok, you got me there."

"Back to the point at hand," I sighed and rubbed my temples, "She's getting a little too close for comfort."

"Tell me about it." Percy grumbled.

"Yo Captain!" Sloan yelled from the pool, "When are you two gonna jump in?"

"In a second, now swim." Percy said. Sloan glared at him and ducked back under again.

"We should start practicing before Coach Xeno gets here." Hayden said. Percy nodded and kissed my cheek really fast.

"See you in class." He said, and followed Hayden into the pool.

"While they do that, let's get down to business." Trinity said, "Maybe it's time we called in a friend to help with mist-ifying a certain someone."

"Thalia?" I asked. She nodded.

"I've seen her work her magic. If there's anyone that can completely wipe Calypso's mind, it's her." Piper said.

"Actually, I talked to Thalia last night." Jason said, "Her and the Hunters are sort of preoccupied in Canada with the Manticore." I shuddered. I had bad memories about that French idiot.

* * *

We spent the rest of that morning's practice arguing about the best way to deal with her. You'd think a bunch of highly trained, strategically brilliant demigods would be able to come up with something. Sadly, we couldn't agree on anything. Leo kept talking about a bunch of solutions involving mechanical bulls, Piper was talking about stealing her makeup to distract her, and for some reason nobody was agreeing with my idea of feeding her to Mrs. O'Leary. I suppose they were right. Calypso would give her horrible indigestion.

When practice was over, and Coach Xeno told the guys to hit the shower, Percy and Hayden jogged over to us with towels over their shoulders.

"So, now what?" They asked.

"Get me some aspirin. We have nothing." I groaned. Percy tried to put his arm around my shoulders but I elbowed him away, "Ew, you're wet."

"Well normally I would change that, but that would only make things worse." He joked.

"Hey Jackson," Sloan and a couple of his goonies walked up to us.

"Not now, Sloan. We're kind of busy." Percy grumbled. He didn't listen.

"Calypso broke up with me because of you." He yelled and raised his fist, "Now you're gonna pay!" His fist came down and connected with Percy's jaw.

"Hey!" I jumped out of my seat, headache suddenly not important, and punched his nose as hard as I could. Blood started to splatter on the floor.

"You're gonna pay for that, Princess!" He growled. I sent one glare to his buddies and they were gone.

"Oh yes, she is." Coach Xeno came out of his office, "To the nurse, Sloan. As for Ms. Chase… I suggest you take a trip to the principals office."

Oh Hades.

* * *

"Another strike?!" Percy asked. I nodded and buried my face in his pillow.

"That's my second one. One more, and I'm out of school."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Sorry this is a little later than I was planning. Well, hopefully it makes up for the terrible chapter I put up a couple of days ago!**

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"I can't even _believe _this!" I yelled while I paced back and forth in Percy's room, "Who would have thought that Calypso and Sloan of all people, would be the reason that I'm on the edge of getting kicked out of school!" Percy lay on his stomach on his bed, watching me.

"You'd think that the teachers and the principal of that school would have a little more sense as to listen to me! I was completely justified in punching Sloan and Calypso!"

"I told you, Paul's talking to them to try and drop charges." I glared at his smirk.

"This isn't a joke, Percy!" He sighed and sat up on his bed.

"Annabeth, you need to calm down. Everything will be just fine." I didn't stop pacing, "Annabeth?" I didn't answer, "Annabeth please, just sit down and relax." I couldn't. I couldn't just sit down and relax with two strikes hanging over my head! Percy grunted and got to his feet. My boyfriend planted himself in my path and put his hands on my shoulders to keep me from moving.

"Annabeth Chase." He said firmly. I looked up at his green eyes staring at me, "This is not the end of the world. You will be fine so long as you keep your fists to yourself." He said. I huffed and crossed my arms.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious." I said flatly. He smiled.

"Yes I am, and you love that." Sadly, that was true, "I love you, Annabeth. Two strikes or not, that isn't gonna change." He said surely, "If you get yourself worked up about this, then Calypso wins." Hades, I hated it when he was right.

"Fine." I muttered. Percy tilted my chin and kissed me.

"You know, this math homework isn't going to do itself." He teased. I rolled my eyes and punched his shoulder.

"Hand me the paper, I'll teach you."

"Did I mention I love you?"

* * *

Mr. Blofis was out sick today, so we had a substitute for English class. Percy, me, Leo, and Calypso were in class together. I was just glad Calypso sat on the opposite side of the room.

The substitute teacher walked in, and I almost fell out of my chair! Every boy in the room started to drool, and every girl started to glare and slump down self-consciously.

She had perfect hair, perfect makeup, and a perfect body. Though I wasn't exactly sure what she looked like. I somehow felt jealous and irritated at the same time.

"Hello class," Ugh, even her voice was flawless, "I'm Ms. Dove." Wow, that isn't obvious at all. I looked over my shoulder at Percy, drooling on his desk. I threw a pen at him and he snapped out of it. He kept looking back and forth between Aphrodite and me in confusion. Oh yeah, Aphrodite takes the form of whatever the viewer finds pretty. That's sweet… and creepy on Aphrodite's part.

"Hi Ms. Dove!" Calypso called from the back. Aphrodite wiggled her fingers towards her.

"Ms. Cielo, nice to see you again." Again? Leo stared at me looking for an answer. I shrugged.

"Now then, we are going to do something rather special today." Oh dear, "You've all heard of the play _Romeo and Juliet_, haven't you?" I coughed.

"Um, _Ms. Dove_," I said through gritted teeth, "We're studying _Macbeth_ right now."

"Oh my dear, don't worry your pretty little blonde head about it. Today can be a special day." She winked. This will be bad.

"Children!" Aphrodite clapped, "Let's do a little theater, shall we? The famed balcony scene?" She squealed, "Oh I just love that! It's so romantic!" I resisted the urge to vomit.

"Can I please be Juliet?" Calypso called.

"Why of course! Come on up, my sweet." Calypso bounced to the front in her disgustingly girly floral dress. Who wears a dress in November anyways?!

"We need a Romeo!" Aphrodite sang. Every boy in the class started raising their hand and shouting, including my boyfriend!

"Percy!" I hissed.

"What's that? Percy?" Aphrodite cupped her ear dramatically, "Well ok then, if you insist my darling!" I didn't even bother hiding my glare towards her while Percy stumbled to the front in a daze.

"So uh… what now?" He asked stupidly. Aphrodite tapped her chin with a perfectly manicured nail.

"Well, I don't exactly have a copy on me at the moment. I supposed you'll just have to wing it." She says calmly, "Just remember; it's after the party and Juliet is out on her balcony thinking about Romeo and feeling guilty about loving him." Calypso batted her eyelashes at Percy. I bet she didn't feel guilty in the least.

"Annabeth, care to tell the class what happens next?" Aphrodite asked me.

"Romeo comes out of the bushes telling her she's beautiful, and then they kiss." I grumbled. Why was Aphrodite doing this to us? I thought Percy and me were her favorite couple!

"It's so dramatic and love-filled! And what's love without a little drama, eh Annabeth?" She winked again. Well, there was my answer, "You may begin, children!"

Calypso dramatically leaned against the teacher's desk.

"Oh Romeo, ROMEO!" She wailed. I ground my teeth but stayed silent, "Oh how I wish you weren't a Montague! ROMEO!" She certainly didn't have a career in acting.

"Uh… Juliet?" Percy said awkwardly, "You're uh… you're really pretty… and stuff." He kept glancing towards me. I bit my tongue and gave him an _It's ok, just get it over with_ look.

"Oh Romeo, you came back for me!" Calypso said. She took a step and threw her arms around Percy. I winced.

"Um yeah, I did. I think you're pretty and… yeah." He said lamely. At least Percy didn't seem to care. Not that I was worried about him leaving me just because him and Calypso did one skit in class, I just didn't like the idea of my boyfriend kissing another girl. Even if it was fake.

"Then prove it! Kiss me Romeo!" Here we go. Calypso winked at me, then puckered her lips. Percy looked a little green as he started to lean forward just a little bit. Aphrodite's eyes darted between my emotionless expression, and Percy's discomfort. Percy and Calypso's lips met in the middle. Leo reached over the aisle and patted my shoulder. Calypso wrapped herself around my boyfriend and completely melted into the kiss while Percy looked like he was kissing Ares and about to vomit.

"Ok, scene over, we're done!" Percy stumbled backwards and looked at me. I stayed expressionless, but inside I was flaming.

"That was lovely, children." Aphrodite said, "You know, we might was well have you two do the dying scene too…" She sang. Oh that is it!

"This is highly inappropriate for a high school English class!" I burst.

"What's the matter, Annabeth? Afraid your little boyfriend will leave you for me?" Calypso asked maliciously.

"Never in a million years would he leave me, but I don't exactly like watching this and you both know it." I said to her and Aphrodite, "You can't make students kiss in class, Ms. Dove, no matter how _sweet _or _lovely_ you think it is." I said. Aphrodite's eyes widened like she was the most innocent person in the world.

"You're getting really angry over there, Annabeth." Calypso teased, "You gonna do something about it?"

"Oh how clever, getting me angry so that I'll get my final strike and get suspended!" The rest of the class just sat there, watching the show unfold.

"Can we just get back to the Romeo and Juliet stuff please?" Calypso whined.

"Actually, I think I'm good." Percy said awkwardly.

"Come on Percy, you know you liked it." Calypso giggled. I saw her eyes flutter to me expectantly for a moment. She looked like she was waiting for something, but if she wanted me to beat her up she would be a little more obvious about it.

Wait a second… for all she knew we were superheroes with superpowers. Maybe she was waiting for me to do something "magical". Lucky for me, Athena's children all have special powers of the mind.

"I'm not going to sit here and watch this stupidity. Unless we're going to start an actual class soon, I'm leaving." I stood up and picked up my textbook.

"What will your mother think of you leaving class?" Aphrodite asked, trying to get me to stay for more torture.

"She'll understand when she hears _you _were involved." Aphrodite winced. Athena was definitely more powerful than her, and a lot scarier.

"Come on Annabeth. I thought you were stronger than this. Storming out of the classroom just because you're jealous? Weak." Calypso taunted.

I hate hubris. One of these days it will be the death of me, just not today.

I growled under my breath and stomped towards the door.

"See you after class, Percy."

* * *

**Percy POV**

Annabeth was pacing… again. I'd had to brush my teeth three times and scrub my mouth out with nectar before I could get her to kiss me again!

"I will repeat: Annabeth, _relax!_" She didn't.

"Of course it was Aphrodite! Oh that meddling, manicured, self-absorbed…"

"Annabeth! You're gonna cause a thunderstorm or something!" I yelled. She shut her mouth, but didn't stop pacing.

"My mother's about ready to ground me to Hades Palace, and vaporize you!" Well that's sort of terrifying.

"My dad won't let that happen." I said. She still didn't cool down. Maybe if I caused a small tidal wave…

"She knows Percy. I know she knows. Calypso's onto us. This is so bad." Ok, yeah, that was bad.

"We can still find a way out of this." I said weakly. She let out a hysterical laugh.

"We defeated the Titan King, the Romans, Mother Earth herself even! And yet we can't even handle a single mortal girl!" She's gonna have a heart attack soon.

"Annabeth I swear I will send you to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean soon if you don't _calm down_!" Wow, for once I'm the rational one. Surprisingly I sort of prefer being the idiot better.

"Go ahead, I'll be safer in your Dad's kingdom than here where my mom can come get mad at me." She said miserably.

I decided to do what a normal boyfriend would do in a situation like this: I got up and hugged her.

"It'll all be ok, Wise Girl." She squeezed my waist and put her chin down on my shoulder

"I hope so."

* * *

"Ok guys, you ready for sections?" The team whooped and pumped their fists into the air in excitement. It's two weeks after that issue with Sloan and Annabeth, and so far he hasn't really pushed it.

"Who's gonna win this!?" Hayden called through the locker room. Lucky for us, sectionals were being held in Goode this year.

"GOODE!"

"Yeah we are!" I clapped. All the guys started cheering and slapping each other with towels.

"Hey Jackson!" Oh boy, here we go again, "I got a proposition for you." Sloan said coolly from his spot on a bench.

"I'm not interested." I said calmly. This guy wasn't gonna ruin my focus today!

"I bet…" He ignored me, "…that I can beat your best time today." Yeah right.

"Sure, whatever." I said. Even the other guys on the team were laughing behind their locker doors. They all knew I could kick Sloan's butt. Besides, I was nicer than he was.

"Seriously. In fact, I bet your captainship!" Hayden actually snorted at that!

"Alright, fine. If you beat my time by more than thirty seconds, you get to be captain." I said completely calmly, "But if you don't, then you have to clean the locker room after practice every day until the end of the school year."

"You have yourself a deal, Fish Boy."

* * *

The team came out of the locker room cheering and overall boosting up the school spirit. Annabeth and Trinity had seats in the front and were cheering the loudest of all of them. I sent Annabeth a grin and a wave. She would deny it later, but it totally made her blush.

"Swimmers, take your mark!" The announcer called. Sloan and I were in the first race together along with a few other guys from the other school. We took our stance in side-by-side lanes.

"You're going down, Jackson." Sloan growled.

"We're on the same team you moron." I muttered. He didn't hear me because at that moment the whistle blew, and we all leaped into the water. I let myself slow down a little bit so that I didn't accidentally break any world records. That wouldn't be suspicious at all…

I used my super awesome water senses to try and figure out where everyone was. Good news: I was ahead of everyone else. Bad news: Sloan was right on my tail. If he kept going at this rate he would beat my time! I shouldn't have been going this slow this whole time. He was gaining fast, and there was no way I was gonna give up being captain just because of one race.

Annabeth would yell at me later, but it was worth it. Besides, it's not like our team would lose because of it, I'm still in the lead.

I used my powers just a little, tiny bit, to push Sloan backwards. Just that tiny little…

Oh no. Did he just start swimming _backwards?_ Ok, ok, ok chill out. It was only for a second, nobody will notice!

My fingers touched the edge of the pool and it was over. I looked out over the crowd and everyone was cheering. It didn't look like anyone had seen that weird moment with Sloan.

Well, except for Annabeth, who had her arms crossed and was looking at me like I had just touched her laptop (which was heavily guarded, by the way. I wouldn't try going near that thing if I were you.)

"Did you _see _that?!" A voice, muffled a little by the crowd, shouted. I turned my head to see Calypso, "Matt Sloan was swimming back! Like he was being pushed!" Her eyes narrowed in on me. Gulp.

Annabeth to the rescue once again. While I pulled myself out of the pool so that the next round could go, she went up to Calypso.

"What are you talking about?" Annabeth was surprisingly calm. Calypso… not so much.

"The water… the water was pushing him!" She babbled. Annabeth laughed.

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" If this whole hero thing didn't work out, Annabeth had a backup career as an actress, "Water? Pushing him? Ha!"

"I'm serious, loser! I saw it!" She was stubborn. Wonderful.

"Whatever, Calypso. Tell me how the nut house is." Annabeth said. She was probably trying to embarrass her into silence. Instead it made her mad.

"Why you little…" Calypso leaned forward to push Annabeth into the pool, but she moved out of the way. Calypso stumbled and fell head first into the water.

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"B-but I didn't do it!" I argued.

"Sir, I know Ms. Chase. She isn't the type to push people into swimming pools." Mr. Blofis said gently to his boss, Mr. Hamm. A.K.A my homeroom teacher's husband, the principal.

"How else did I end up in the water?" Calypso sniffled, a towel wrapped around her shoulders.

"You tripped and fell in!" This was ridiculous!

"My baby girl fell into a pool! Her dress is _designer! _I will not leave here until that girl is punished!" Mrs. Cielo, Calypso's mom pointed at me. She was a tall, pretty woman. Those were after all the qualifications for being a model. Mr. Hamm rubbed his forehead.

"Ms. Chase, we have already had two instances before this one involving you and Ms. Cielo, both of which you were physically aggressive. What am I supposed to think here?" I slumped back in my seat. This was hopeless. Where was my mom when I needed her? Mr. Blofis reached out and patted my shoulder. I had already explained to him the entire story, so he understood what was going on. Not that we could explain that to the principal, of course!

"Ms. Chase, I hereby suspend you from high school for two weeks." Great. Wait until my mom hears about this…

* * *

"You? Suspended? You!?" Leo just kept repeating that.

"Yes, Leo. Me." I grumbled. Percy held me tighter to his chest.

"This is so stupid! I'm calling a lawyer or something, this isn't fair!" Rachel was more than mad. She was furious. Her face was almost as bright as her hair.

"No." I said, "Calypso has more influence over that school than Zeus has over the sky." Cue the thunder. "I'm almost grateful for two weeks away from there." Lies! Percy looked at his watch.

"It's getting late, I think I should probably head home for dinner. Annabeth, you coming?" His parents had invited me over as a sort of pity meal. I'd rather go and get love from Sally, than be the subject of the third degree from Leo.

I nodded, "Yeah. I'll see you guys later." The demigods muttered goodbyes after us as we put on our jackets and headed out.

"It'll all be ok in the end, you know." Percy said while we walked down the stairs.

"I know. I know everything, remember?" He smirked.

"Never forgot." We walked down the street in a comfortable silence. Little white flakes started to fall down from the sky.

"By the way, I forgot to do this," I slapped his arm, "For cheating today."

"He bet me my captainship! I couldn't leave the team in his hands." Oh you stupid, stupid Percy you.

"It's made Calypso even more suspicious of us! Hopefully the eventfulness of today will make her forget about it, just for a little while." If anything good were to come out of my suspension, it would be that. Percy stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sorry. I panicked."

"You're lucky you're cute." I growled as we got to his apartment building, "Come on. Sally will be waiting."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N- What do you think of me taking a short hiatus (like, two weeks) finishing this story, and then posting all the chapters at once? Or should I just keep updating like this?**

* * *

**Percy POV**

School was a lot more boring without Annabeth there to keep my mind occupied. What made it worse was Sloan teasing me every day about her being gone.

"Ha, Percy, your girlfriend got suspended. Ha, Percy, where's your golden retriever? Ha, Percy, too bad your girlfriend isn't here to protect you!" I groaned and banged my head on the lunch table, "He's driving me nuts! It's every single day. It doesn't even hurt, it's just irritating!" Rachel frowned.

"This isn't fair! Annabeth didn't even do anything that third time! Everyone at the swim meet saw that! One of the teachers had to seem something."

"But she still got suspended…" Jason pursed his lips, "That's not right."

"Yeah, it seems kind of off." Hazel agreed.

"You don't think there was some kind of interference?" Frank asked in a quiet tone, "You know… godly interference?"

"What would they gain from getting Annabeth kicked out of school?" I asked, "Athena would vaporize anyone who even suggested.

"The gods don't always act as a whole. They each have their own agendas." Piper said bitterly, "My mom especially." Bingo!

I didn't get the chance to sound smart in front of everyone because at that exact moment, something more terrifying then Gaea herself walked into the cafeteria.

My girlfriend's mother.

Students pressed themselves against the walls of the cafeteria as she stormed in. I almost hid underneath the table myself. Athena looked mad, I mean _mad._ She wore simple jeans and a white shirt, looking like any other mom, but the storm in her eyes and the vein popping out of the side of her head told everyone else to run for their lives.

She stomped right up to our table, and stood in front of me, arms crossed.

"Do you have an explanation for me?" She demanded, tapping her foot quickly on the floor. I gulped.

"I'm sorry, My Lady. There was nothing I could…" Athena held up her hand to silence me.

"This is your fault, Sea Spawn." She said coldly, "You are the one distracting my daughter from her studies, and now look where you've gotten her! Suspended! _My_ daughter! My children do not get suspended, do you hear me boy?" I nodded hurriedly.

"Yes, ma'am. But…"

"Do not interrupt me." She snapped, "I have stood by for several months and let my daughter throw her life away on _you._ I can see that I was right from the beginning!"

"My Lady! Please, let me explain!" I burst. I looked around us at all of the students with their eyes glued to us. The lunch ladies looked like they should have done something, but were to scared to, "Maybe we should talk about this in private." I said, eyeing our audience. She nodded curtly.

"Come." I followed her out, into the hall, and into an empty classroom. I tried not to flinch when she locked the door.

"Lady Athena, I'm sorry. The incidents that Annabeth got punished for were a matter of camp safety!" Athena rolled her eyes.

"Don't make me laugh. They were acts of jealousy and anger and hiding mistakes that you made!" Ok, yes.

"But if she hadn't done them…"

"That's enough! I have eyes, I know exactly what happened. It was you that got her suspended, and it was you who is halting her education!" Note to self: mad gods, are also irrational gods.

"I knew that you would be bad for her! I have known it all along! No good can come from a little Sea Spawn like yourself…" Ouch. I wonder what her wedding toast will be?

Ok that sort of came out of nowhere. Well not nowhere… I mean… I'll think about this later!

"Please, Lady Athena…"

"Spare me your sniveling. I can't ban you from seeing my daughter. She's clever enough that she would find a way to see you anyways." Athena wrinkled her nose in disgust, "But I am warning you now, jeopardize my daughter's future again and I will harm you so severely that not even your father could save you." She spun on her heel and stomped out of the room.

Well ok… a very know-it-all goddess just yelled at me. That sure makes a guy's day better.

* * *

**Calypso POV**

Look what we have here. A certain someone doesn't like a certain relationship. Perhaps a certain individual, such as me, could help move this whole process along just a bit quicker. Who better to break them up than the woman that controls Annabeth and terrifies Percy?

I waited around the corner for Ms. Whatever-Her-Last-Name-Is until she stormed out of the classroom. I rushed out and caught her on the bottom step in front of the school.

"Hey! Hey wait!" I called and waved my hand towards her. She turned around and I swear I almost jumped into the bushes. She was way scary-looking, no wonder Percy was freaked out.

"Can I help you?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. It sort of felt like that one time when I went to the doctor to get an x-ray on my leg.

"I just wanted to come and compliment you." I said, "It's about time somebody did something about their relationship." She seemed to like being complimented, but she still looked suspicious.

"Thank you…" She said slowly. I took that as a cue to keep talking.

"I mean, they've been going around this school for months now being all mushy in the halls, distracting during class, you know that stuff. Annabeth gets so jealous whenever another girl even _looks_ at Percy." She raised an eyebrow at that one, "She even thought that I had a crush on him for a little while. Ew!" Oh well, a little white lie didn't hurt anyone.

"Is that so?" Annabeth's mom seemed pretty interested at that point.

"Oh yeah. Totally! That's what her strikes were for! She was hitting people that looked at her boyfriend funny." She pursed her lips.

"What's your name, child?" She asked.

"Calypso Cielo, pleasure to meet you." I shook her hand. Dang she had a firm handshake!

"Well, Calypso, it has been a pleasure." She said stiffly, "Why don't you keep an eye on them? Let me know if things… escalate." I nodded.

"Yes ma'am, I will." I said with a smile. Annabeth's mom was just about to turn around when Ms. Dove came rushing out of the school.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is going on here?!" She demanded. Annabeth's mom looked at her in shock.

"What are _you _doing here?" She hissed. Ms. Dove put both her hands on her hips.

"Spicing up my husband's TV network. All his shows are getting dull and it's about time I added a little drama to my favorite soap, if you know what I mean." She winked, but Annabeth's mom just rolled her eyes.

"So this is your doing, is it?" She demanded. Ms. Dove shrugged.

"Some of it. Some of it was just raw love at work." She giggled, "Whether you like it or not, they're sort of destined to be together." Ms. Dove turned to look at me, "And _you_, little Miss, won't be breaking them up." Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap…

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I lied. Annabeth's mom rolled her eyes.

"Oh why didn't I see it before?"

"You were blinded by rage." Ms. Dove answered, "But more to the point, Ms. Cielo. I brought you into the picture to spice things up, not to break things up!" Uh… what?

"Have you been meddling, _Ms. Dove?"_ Annabeth's mom asked with annoyance clear in her voice.

"You know, the bell is going to ring any second and I really have a class to get to…" Ms. Dove hurried into the school, even though she was only the sub this morning. Why was she still here anyways?

"Well this changes things a bit." Annabeth's mom muttered to herself. She left without another word to me.

What was that? Things are just getting more confusing…

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"Annabeth dear, you know you don't have to do this." Sally said, gesturing to the laundry we were folding.

"Happy to do it, Mrs. Blofis… er, Sally I mean." She smiled.

"Well it's very sweet of you." She said and patted my arm. Ever since I got suspended, I've been able to spend a lot more time with Sally. I've got to say, she's the coolest mom ever! No wonder Percy's a mama's boy. We spend the first few hours of the morning doing basic household chores, which I really don't mind. I've had a lot worse things to deal with than dirty dishes.

Percy didn't exactly like having his mom clean his pigsty of a room, but he had no problem with me being in there. So while I cleaned up Percy's room, Sally cleaned the bathroom right across the hall and we would talk about different novels she was working on.

Sometimes I wish my mom were like this. But that's just not how it works with godly parents. It was nice having Sally.

"So, how are you and Percy?" She asked.

"We're good. Great, actually." I smiled to myself, "You've raised a good boy, Sally." She chuckled.

"I like to think so. Although there are some moments where I just have to wonder what is going through his head." She shook her head in disbelief.

"I know what you mean, believe me." For months I was completely clueless on whether he liked me, or he liked Rachel, or he liked neither of us, or… well you get the picture.

"I'm glad he has you around. I don't think there's another girl out there who could possibly handle his craziness." I chuckled.

"There are plenty who would like to give it a try." I said with only a tinge of bitterness. Sally looked at me sympathetically.

"I wouldn't worry too much about other girls, sweetie. Percy only has eyes for you." She assured me.

"Thanks Sally. I know." I said. She smiled at me, and then looked back down at the shirt she was folding. I brushed some hair behind my ear and deliberated asking the next question.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Sally asked. Huh, mother's intuition I suppose.

"Well, I was just wondering if Percy ever mentioned anything to you about… about the future." She nodded knowingly.

"Ah, I see."

"It's just that…" I set down the pair of jeans and perched on the side of the bed, "… after what happened over the summer, what Percy and I went through. I realized that not having him be a part of my life just isn't any option." Sally nodded, "But the thing is that he mentioned something to me over the summer. You see, in the Roman Camp there's a city made just for demigods. It's safe from monsters that may come after us out in the real world. Percy seemed to like it a lot, and he started stuttering about me and him and New Rome and…" I was about to start babbling so I shut my mouth.

"What's the problem with that? It sounds like a good place for the two of you." Sally said.

"It seems perfect, but it's not my home. I grew up in Camp Half-Blood with Chiron and all the other campers. I always thought that I would live somewhere here in New York and spend my summers there as a counselor or something. I thought Percy might like that too but—"

"Annabeth," Sally interrupted gently, "Percy doesn't talk about the future much with me. I can't tell you what he wants to be when he graduates, or where he wants to be, or what he wants his life to be. But what I can tell you, is that no matter what future he decides on, you are in it." She rubbed my shoulder, "Percy loves you. I'm sure that the two of you can come up with a compromise when the time comes." Sally leaned over and planted a light kiss on my temple, "But for now, why don't you guys focus on making it through high school without being eaten by a hellhound." She joked. I smiled.

"Thank you, Sally." So this is what it's like to have a mom around the house.

* * *

When Percy arrived home after school, the two of us were in the kitchen cooking dinner and exchanging embarrassing Percy stories.

"And then he came out of his room in a diaper and sunglasses singing _Who Let the Dogs Out!" _Sally finished her story and we both burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" We turned around and saw Percy peering around the door with a half confused and half scared expression.

"Oh nothing." We elbowed each other and laughed behind our hands. Percy swallowed nervously and walked in.

"How was your day, Percy?" She asked as he kissed her cheek.

"The usual." He answered gruffly and came up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder.

"Did Sloan give you a hard time again?" I asked. He nodded.

"I should call that boy's mother." Sally said, frowning.

"As sweet as that is, I'm pretty sure that won't help." Percy answered, "Besides, I can handle a couple of lame jokes from him." I put my hands on his over my stomach.

"Are you sure? I think I cracked a joke about a dolphin once and you started crying." I teased. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Oh haha, you're hilarious." He said flatly, "What's for dinner?"

"Nothing if you don't let us get back to work." Sally waved a wooden spoon at him, "So either back away from the lovely lady, or start cutting those carrots."

"_Aw_," He pouted and nuzzled his nose into my neck, "I'm not a fan of either of those choices." I reached up and tousled his hair.

"Perseus," Sally put on her Mama Bear face. He sighed and kissed the corner of my mouth one more time.

"I'll be pretending to do history notes in the living room." He called over his shoulder.

"Do your homework!" I yelled back.

"Maybe!"

* * *

After we had all finished dinner, Paul and I continued our schoolwork. He had been tutoring me at night about what I had missed at school that day.

"And then we finished the third act of _Macbeth_, which I assume you've already finished?"

"You assume correct." I answered proudly.

"Know-it-all." Percy snorted. He often liked to sit in on our little lessons and play with my hair. I'd like to say I was completely focused on my studies when he was around but that would be a lie.

"Shh, Percy I'm in class." I said with a smirk. He shut his mouth and twisted another curl around his finger.

"Could you give me an example of satire in the third act?" Paul asked. We continued discussing literature for another five minutes or so before Percy butted in again.

"Are you almost done?" He whined.

"Almost, but not yet." He sighed dramatically.

"It's almost ten o'clock, Annabeth."

"I know, which is why I'm trying to finish this so that I can go home and go to bed." His bottom lip jutted out.

"I've barely seen you all day. Can't you guys finish this tomorrow?" Paul smiled at me.

"We only have fifteen minutes or so left of this. We can just finish it tomorrow morning." He offered kindly. Percy whooped and grabbed my hand before I could respond.

"Thanks Paul! We'll be in my room!" I stumbled after Percy as he practically raced down the hall.

"Where's the fire, Percy?" I asked breathlessly as we entered his room. He shut his door and turned to face me.

"I've missed you this week." He said and put his hands on my shoulders, "And then when I come home and my parents get to see you more than I do." I reached up and put my hands on either side of his face.

"Percy, I love hanging out with your mom and stepdad." I said, "But you're still my favorite Seaweed Brain." I stepped up on my tiptoes and kissed him.

"Promise?" He muttered against my lips.

"Promise." I murmured. He moved his arms around my waist and squeezed me tightly to his chest, still glued to my mouth. I tilted my head and deepened the kiss_. Di immortals _I love when he runs his fingers through my hair like that. I tried to focus my thoughts, but my brain had gone soft at that point.

Just as his lips started to trail down my chin, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Percy! It's getting late!" Sally called through the door. We jumped and disentangled ourselves.

"Ok mom!" He yelled. I sighed and straightened my hair.

"I'd better head home." I said. Percy nodded and gripped my hand.

"I'll walk you there."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N I AM SO SORRY! THis is sooo late, and I know, and I'm sorry. I won't bore you with my life story but let's just say I got busy and didn't have time to write. But hey, ITS SUMMER VACATION! Which means faster updates ;)**

* * *

**Percy POV**

Annabeth and I walked in a comfortable silence towards the apartment. I raised my face up as a couple of snowflakes fell down on us.

"Well isn't this a Lifetime movie moment?" She joked.

"Not quite…" I said mischievously. She was about to ask me why, but I interrupted by picking her up by the waist and spinning her around.

"There!" I said triumphantly, setting her down on her feet again but with my arms still around her, "Now it's cliché." She laughed and put her arms around my neck.

"You sir, are cheesy."

"But you know you love it."

"Mmhm," She said quietly, eyes on my face. We both leaned in closer at the same time…

"Eek!" A girly voice squeaked, "You two are too cute! Oh I did _good_!" We jumped, and saw our path home blocked by the one and only Aphrodite.

"Lady Aphrodite," I said with respect. Annabeth didn't say anything, which was actually a good thing considering all of the insults probably going through her head.

"The two of you are my absolute _favorite_ soap!" She squealed again. "So much drama, so much love. Oh I just love it!"

"Uh… thanks?" I said slowly. Annabeth grumbled under her breath. I reached and squeezed her hand in support. Unfortunately, Aphrodite noticed and started squeaking again.

"I simply cannot wait for the wedding!" We both blushed as she started babbling about flower arrangements and things.

"Lady Aphrodite," I cut in, "Why are you here?" I asked. The goddess snapped her fingers.

"Right! Right, I'm here. Well you see, I came to warn you." She said.

"About what?" Annabeth asked, her anger at the goddess not forgotten.

"That's the problem… the Fates forbid me from telling you _exactly _from what." Gee, how helpful.

"You know, that's fine. We've had enough help from you." Annabeth said boldly. Oh dear, prepare to be vaporized…

"Excuse me?" Aphrodite's voice was so calm I was scared. Annabeth swallowed, but held her ground.

"You've been interfering in our relationship all year! I love Percy, and I don't want to have to go through all of this with him anymore because some goddess decides that our lives are just too dull for her to continue to spy on anymore!" I winced and briefly considered grabbing Annabeth and trying to outrun Aphrodite. Those heels didn't look too good for running, but you never know with goddesses…

Aphrodite's eyes glowered with anger at Annabeth.

"You, my dear, have made a mistake." She spit. Snow whirled around the goddess, and she was gone.

* * *

No matter how much Paul tried to make English fun, it just wasn't without Annabeth. I'd never tell him this, but his class had turned into one of my most boring classes. Calypso and her friends were always teasing me about kissing her because of that Romeo and Juliet thing.

_You know you liked it, Percy!_

_Why don't you two just go out already?_

_You two are sooo a couple!_

Ugh, I was ready to barf by the time I got home to Annabeth every night.

Leo and I sat in the back row tossing a bouncy ball back and forth between us. It kind of reminded me of that one time Annabeth, Grover, and me had played hacky sack with an apple.

"Hi! I'm new." A bubbly voice hissed at the door. I dropped the ball and twisted in my seat to face the door at the same time Leo did.

Kelli the empousa, complete with her cheerleader outfit, stood in the doorway.

"Dibs," Leo hissed in my ear. I smacked his arm.

"She's a monster." I whispered back. Leo rolled his eyes.

"Of course she is. Why are all of the girls I like are either monsters, hunters of Artemis, or evil ice queens?" He muttered. I elbowed him in the ribs.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Blofis I—I—Ah!" Rachel skidded to a stop in the doorway and let out a little squeak at the sight of Kelli. "Er… I was just looking for Percy." She eyed me, then Kelli, then me again. I nodded.

"Well, there he is." Paul said suspiciously. Rachel grinned a fake grin.

"Great, well then I'll just go find Piper and Jason and…" She trailed off and rushed down the hall again.

"Oh, we can't have that, now can we?" Kelli said perkily. Her eyes flashed red at Leo and me. Gulp.

"We can show you to your locker, Kelli." I said in a high-pitched voice, "Right Leo?" He nodded fast. Kelli cocked her head and grinned evilly.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary." She reached out and closed the door. The other students must have seen it as her closing the door, but to us it was a menacing gesture.

I think Paul was starting to catch on to what was going on. There was the tiniest amount of sweat on his forehead.

My hand felt in my pocket for Riptide. I gripped the metal as Kelli walked down the aisle to the empty seat in front of me that belongs to Annabeth.

"Watch it, Percy. We wouldn't want Annabeth to hear about you flirting with the new girl." One of Calypso's friends mocked me. Oh, Annabeth would be the _first_ to know about this. This must have been what Aphrodite was warning us about the other day.

"Annabeth?" Kelli's eyes glinted, "Spunky blonde with an attitude?" I didn't answer. "She's adorable, at least, _Luke_ thought so." I swallowed. I wouldn't let her get to me.

Kelli examined her nails as Paul continued with his lecture. Leo was staring at her with drool starting to come out of his mouth. I kicked his shin.

"So where is she?" Kelli whispered to me, "Annabeth I mean. Did she dump you? Leave you for someone else?" Kellie grinned maliciously and leaned a little closer to me. She smelled like horse.

"Or maybe you left her in Tartarus?" Kelli's eyes twinkled with evil. "You know, Tartarus? That place you stranded her when you let go, where you put her in danger! You know your scent was so strong that every monster within a hundred feet of you came hunting. It was your fault she got hurt! The best part is that you know it, too!" Kelli taunted. Anger started building up in me.

"Oh yeah? Well why don't you tell me if my smell's still there when I send you to Tartarus!"

I uncapped Riptide, there in front of the entire class and held it in front of her face

I blame my ADHD.

Kelli hissed and her hair burst into flames. Everyone started screaming except Paul and Leo. Although from past experience, I'm pretty sure they all saw me about to hit a cheerleader with a baseball bat or something.

"Go ahead, _Perseus_, do your worst." She taunted. Leo ran and blocked the door so that nobody would leave the room and miss their Mist treatment.

I swiped my sword and she ducked down. I gulped when she slowly straightened up again.

"Oh, Percy. You don't want to hurt me." She said soothingly. Half of my brain said no, the other half said DO IT MAN!

"I… uh…" I stuttered. Kelli bared her fangs and stalked closer.

"Just put that pretty sword down…" She cooed. My hands started to loosen their grip of their own accord.

Kelli opened her mouth and started leaning forward to bite me. I couldn't move!

Suddenly, she gasped, and fell to the floor. Piper leaned down and plucked her dagger from the monster's back.

"Boys, so easily tricked by an empousa." Piper said dryly, giving me an amused expression.

"Can we _not_ tell Annabeth about this?" I squeaked. Piper rolled her eyes.

"Let me charmspeak those cowering mortals over there." She pointed to the students all screaming in the corner. "Jason! Get ready for a little Mist magic!" He nodded and ran over.

"B-b-but Percy! Percy just… and then she…!" Calypso stammered. I smacked my forehead.

"Everyone calm down! You did not just see us attack an ancient Greek monster!" Piper told them, "You saw a mean cheerleader beating up Percy, and then me coming in and telling her off! She ran home crying." Piper said proudly.

"Gee, thanks Pipes. Way to make me seem like the weakling here." I said sarcastically.

"You want me to tell Annabeth how you got suckered in by a bloodsucking monster?" Piper asked.

"… Continue." I groaned. Jason snapped his fingers, and everyone got a glazed look in their eyes.

"What happened?"

"Why am I standing over here?"

Slowly, everyone started to return to their seats. Well, almost everyone.

Calypso remained crouched in the corner, looking up at all of us with fear. Jason continued to snap his fingers, and Piper just kept talking to her.

"Why isn't it working?" I asked. Piper just shook her head in fear.

"I—I don't know. She just isn't getting affected at all!" Calypso's mouth was frozen open in terror. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted. The students were starting to come out of their daze and notice…

"Mr. Blofis!" I called, "Calypso fell and hit her head, we need to take her to the nurse." I gave him the this-is-demigod-business-and-I-really-need-to-leav e look. He just nodded.

Jason hoisted up her feet and Piper grabbed her arms. Leo held the door, and the five of us walked down the hall, and out the front door.

"Get her in my car. We need to get Annabeth. Someone text Rachel, Frank, and Hazel and have them meet us at home after school." I said, strapping myself in.

"She is _not_going to be happy to hear about this." Leo muttered.

"I really don't want to be there when you bring Calypso home." Jason shuddered.

"We are _all_ going to be there. I need witnesses!" I said. Piper pursed her lips in fear.

We rode back to my apartment where Annabeth was in silence. Calypso still hadn't woken up yet, but she was obviously stirring.

"Come on, someone help carry her inside." I said as we parked. Leo took her arms and Piper grabbed her feet. Hopefully nobody sees us carrying a body to my apartment. The last thing we need right now is for her to tell the police about me attacking a cheerleader.

"Why isn't she getting affected?" Piper asked in distress, "Even before she got a little bit dazed!"

"I don't know, but I have a pretty good feeling it has to do with Aphrodite." I grumbled. It was a bad idea to make a goddess angry.

Jason held open the door to the apartment as we dragged Calypso in. Annabeth and my mom rushed in from the kitchen with shocked expressions.

"Oh my gods! What happened? Is she _dead?_" Annabeth asked, crouching down next to Calypso's sleeping body on the couch.

"Just fainted. Annabeth, we might have a problem." I said, "Please don't get mad." I squeaked. Her eyes narrowed.

"What happened?" She demanded. I gulped.

"Kelli the empousa came and tried to kill me so Piper showed up and killed her." I decided to leave the part about me getting hypnotized out, "We tried, but the Mist didn't work on her. Neither did charmspeak." Annabeth wined dangerously.

"Percy. Your room. Now." She growled.

"Can't we stay where there are witne—ow!" Annabeth grabbed my ear and dragged me down the hall. She threw me in and slammed the door behind her.

"Percy," She said, eerily calm, "What were you planning on telling Calypso when she woke up?" I hadn't exactly thought that far ahead.

"Would you rather I'd left her in a classroom filled with mortals?" Huh, that was actually a good response…

"You could have taken her to the nurse and told her she fainted. You could have taken her to her house to convince her it was all a dream, you could have dumped her at an asylum, or in a garbage can for all I care!" Annabeth yelled, "She is going to wake up in your apartment with visions of Greek monsters in her head, and we're going to have to tell her the truth since, apparently, the Mist isn't working!" And Annabeth wins… like always.

"Annabeth I'm sorry. I panicked! I was kind of about to get killed by an evil she-demon." She rolled her eyes.

"You got distracted by her, didn't you?" It's times like these that I hate being such a bad liar.

"It happens to all guys! I couldn't help it!" She pursed her lips angrily.

"Ugh, forget it. The point is that Calypso is here, and she's about to find out the truth, and it's your fault!"

"It is not! It's yours!" Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, is it?" She spit.

"Yes, it is!" I yelled, "_You_ angered Aphrodite, and then the next day the Mist and charmspeak just stop working on Calypso. This is your fault, Annabeth! If you could have just bitten your tongue we wouldn't be having this problem!" She grit her teeth. Annabeth was smart, but she was also stubborn. Instead of admitting that I was right and she was wrong, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

Ok, so I felt bad about fighting with Annabeth. Now isn't exactly the best time to dwell on that, though. Right now, there were a lot more pressing matters that I had to deal with.

I followed an angry Annabeth back into the living room where Calypso was shuffling even more in her sleep. Jason, Piper, and Leo were all looking down at their feet to avoid catching Annabeth's death glare. Rachel looked straight at me with sympathy.

"She's gonna wake up any time now." Annabeth said flatly, "And we're telling her everything when she does."

"Are you sure? We could call one of the gods to…"

"No gods," Annabeth interrupted Piper, "They're the ones who put us in this mess in the first place." Thunder rumbled outside. Annabeth ran to the window and threw it open to stick her head outside.

"You heard me!" She shouted upwards. Rain started to splatter down onto the street as she slammed the window shut again. For a second I was scared she was gonna break the glass.

"Hmph… mm… wha… wait… what?" Calypso started mumbling and blinking her eyes, "Where am I?" There was fear in her voice and recognition in her eyes as she stared around at us. She remembered.

"My living room," I answered when nobody else did. Calypso pointed her finger towards Piper.

"You! I saw you kill a… a thing… she had fangs, and her legs…" She shuddered. Annabeth breathed out heavily, and sat on the couch next to Calypso.

"I need you to listen to me very, very carefully." Annabeth said quietly. "What I am about to tell you cannot be repeated. Ever. I don't care who it is, this information cannot be shared with anyone else." Calypso winced and cowered a little bit. Annabeth closed her eyes for a long time, and then opened them again.

"Everything from Greek legends and myths, like the Minotaur and Narcissus… it's all real. The gods are real." Annabeth said in a surprisingly calm voice, "What you saw today was called an empousa. She is a monster from Greek mythology." Annabeth turned to look at all of us, "All of us, except Rachel, are demigods. One of our parents is a Greek god and the other is mortal." She turned to look at Calypso again.

"So… all those kids from last year… they were…?" Annabeth nodded. Calypso's eyes flickered to Rachel. "What about Rachel."

"I'm the Oracle, like a psychic only a lot creepier." She explained. Calypso bobbed her head slowly with her mouth hanging open.

"Um… wow ok… uh…"

"It's a lot to take in," I said awkwardly, "So you should go home and sleep or something." She nodded.

"Um… yeah. I should… yeah." Annabeth stood up with her.

"Before you go, you have to promise not to tell anyone anything, you hear me? Not about the monsters, not about the gods, not about us, nothing. You just fainted in class and they helped you home. That is all, ok?" Calypso nodded absently.

"I-I promise." With that, she walked right out the door. Annabeth pushed her hair behind her ears and picked up her backpack.

"I'm going home, I have to call Chiron." She muttered.

"Annabeth—"

"I'll see you later." She said without looking at me. Without even a second look she walked out the door.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N I'm sorry this is so delayed! But I think you will like it... **

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked Chiron desperately. He stroked his goatee with worry through the IM.

"The gods each have their own agendas, whether we like it or not. They wouldn't allow a mere mortal to know so much if they didn't have a reason." He said wisely.

"Oh Aphrodite has a reason alright, getting back at me. And I'm fairly certain Hera is happy to go along with it!" Thunder rumbled outside once again. Chiron looked up at the sky on his end, and frowned.

"Be careful what you say, Annabeth." He warned me for the thousandth time. I started pacing again. Sooner or later I'm going to create a rut in this room.

"I know, I know." I grumbled, "Chiron I think I'm going to have an anxiety attack. An _insane_ mortal girl knows the truth! Who knows what happens now?" Chiron pursed his lips.

"The first thing you do, is make amends with Percy." He gave me that all-knowing look that I both loathed and loved. I sighed and fell down onto my bed.

"He brought _Calypso_ to his house so that I could tell her the truth. That's kind of a stupid move, isn't it?" Chiron chuckled.

"We're discussing the same Son of Poseidon, aren't we?" He said, "Annabeth, he is a one-minded person. He acts before he thinks. Yes, what he did wasn't exactly the best idea… however considering the circumstances what he did may have saved us from a bigger exposure." That was true I suppose. Calypso could have told anyone anything about us if he hadn't gotten her out of there. Oh wonderful, now I feel like the idiot.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow." I said, rubbing my temples, "But right now, I'm still feeling stubborn." Chiron smiled.

"Good night, and good luck."

* * *

Usually in the mornings I would meet Percy at his apartment. I decided that this morning wouldn't be any different. Right now, the last thing we needed was a divided front. And besides, he's a Seaweed Brain, but he's a Seaweed Brain that might have saved our butts.

I awoke bright and early at five, like I usually do. After sneaking past a snoring Piper, and wrapping a robe around my pajamas, I made it out into the kitchen. I stretched my arms above my head and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Morning," Someone yawned. My eyes snapped open to find a black-haired, green-eyed demigod sitting at the counter.

"What are you doing here so early? Usually you aren't even awake for another hour and a half." Percy licked his lips awkwardly.

"I was sort of hoping we could talk…" I closed my eyes for a second longer than usual.

"Want some juice?" He didn't like coffee, it was more of Rachel's thing.

"Sure." I poured him and me a glass of orange juice while he watched me. I leaned my elbows on the counter across from him and traced circles around the rim of my glass.

"I sort of came here to apologize…" Percy started, but I stopped him.

"Don't." I said, "Look I was mad, you were panicking, and things got said that weren't really true." Percy's eyes widened in surprise, "I don't want us to be arguing right now, especially with Calypso in on everything. Actually, I just don't want to fight with you at all."

"Oh… uh…" The stupid look on his face almost made me laugh.

"Just say you forgive me and I will too." I instructed, not able to wipe the smirk off my face. The troublemaker smile I'd come to love surfaced on his face.

"I forgive you," He said reaching out to push my curls out of my eyes.

"I forgive you too." I said. Percy cupped my cheek and pulled me close so that he could kiss me.

"Ew, PDA in the kitchen." We broke apart to see Rachel padding in wearing fluffy slippers and a kimono. Despite her words, she was smiling.

"Sorry, Rachel." Percy said with a blush. She waved it off.

"Just get me a cup of coffee and we'll call it even." She joked and went to turn on the coffee machine.

* * *

I was finally allowed back in school that day. Great timing, huh? All of us walked into the school separately. It's just the littlest bit suspicious if a big group of demigods walks into a high school looking around in fear. Wow, that sounds like the start of a bad joke.

Ok, I officially hate ADHD.

Trinity and Hayden were hanging out by our lockers with the worry plain on their faces. We'd filled them in over the phone after we were all back home.

"Everything ok?" I asked them.

"So far so good. At least, I haven't heard anyone talking about you guys." Trinity said quietly.

"Well, no more than the usual. You know,_ Percy's cute! Annabeth's so lucky! Damn, Jackson's girlfriend's hot!" _Hayden imitated voices.

"Excuse me? Who's talking about Annabeth?" Percy interrupted him. I put my hand on his chest.

"Not our biggest problem right now. We don't need you beating anyone up." I muttered.

"Speaking of beating people up, I'd like to beat her up." Piper grumbled as she walked up behind us. We followed her line of sight towards the front door. We were all silent as she walked down the hall towards us. Calypso brushed past our little group, only glancing over to give us a wink. She walked directly down the hall to her line of "friends".

I breathed out in relief, "She hasn't told anyone yet."

"Yet," Percy grumbled darkly.

"Right, yet." Oh Hades…

We were careful not to look at Calypso in any of our classes. Lunch, however, was another matter…

"Hey guys!" She said cheerfully. Calypso pushed herself onto the bench between Jason and Piper, across from Percy, "Kill any monsters?"

"Will you keep it down?" I shushed her through my teeth. Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Chill, Blondie. It's not like I've Tweeted you guy's secret." I grit my teeth. Percy held my hand underneath the table, silently telling me to calm down.

"And you won't if you value your life." I growled. Her eyes twinkled maliciously.

"Oohh, someone's not happy I'm in on the secret, is she?" Gee, what clued you in?

"We're just nervous, that's all." Hazel said quietly.

"Yeah, this is kind of a big secret to keep." Trinity added. Calypso glared at her.

"If _you two_ can keep it a secret, then so can I." She snapped at Trinity and Hayden.

"Easy there, we don't need any arguments in front of the entire school." Piper said soothingly. I immediately relaxed.

I hate charmspeak.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Calypso waved her off, "So anyways, I want to know some more about all this!" She clapped her hands for whatever reason.

"You're on a strict need-to-know basis." I said.

"Well I think I "need to know" who your parents are! You said you're children of gods, right?" She said, twisting her hair around her finger.

"Yes," I muttered, "But I don't think you need to know that." The anger was starting to come back.

"It can't hurt." Percy said calmly. I stared daggers at him, so he did his best not to look me in the eyes.

"Yes, yes it can!" I argued, "The more she knows, the more dangerous all of this is for us."

"Hello, I'm sitting right here." Calypso waved her hand in front of my face. I almost bit her, "Maybe if you tell me a little more about all of this, I'll be more tempted to keep it a secret."

"Is that a threat?" I glowered. She put on her "innocent" face.

"That's a suggestion, sweetie." Ok, it's time I punched her again. Percy sensed that, and put my hands in an iron lock. I pursed my lips.

"Fine, _Sweetie._" I spit, "Have it your way." She perked up.

"You first, Percy." Calypso said happily.

"My dad's Poseidon." He said grudgingly.

"Oh, that makes perfect sense. You've totally got the swimmers body, plus you're amazing in the pool." Ugh, don't make me vomit.

"What about you guys?" Calypso turned to Hazel and Frank.

"My dad is Mars, and Hazel's is Pluto." Frank explained. Her perfectly plucked eyebrows furrowed.

"Aren't they Roman?" She asked.

"Yes, us and Jason are Roman demigods. Everyone else is Greek." Hazel said softly.

"Ahh, I see." Calypso said. She cocked her head, "So who's your parent Jason?" She asked.

"My dad's Jupiter." He said, looking down.

"That's Zeus right?" Calypso clarified. Piper nodded, "Oh, well hello Mr. Powerful." She winked. Piper's jaw clenched.

"Let me guess, Garbage Girl, the goddess of bad hair days?" Calypso asked.

"Aphrodite, actually." Piper admitted painfully. Calypso's eyebrows shot up.

"No way, seriously?" Her eyes raked Piper, "Well, I guess we know who _isn't_ the favorite child." Rachel stood up so fast her soda fell over.

"Yeah, but it isn't Piper." Her eyes seethed with fury. Rachel was scary in her Oracle moments, but she looked scarier now. Calypso's eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't respond.

"So hey, my dad's Hephaestus! The super awesome god of fire and stuff." Leo interjected. Calypso ignored him.

"Annabeth," Her head whipped to look at me, "You're up." She popped the 'P'. I licked my lips.

"Athena." I said. Calypso's finger twisted around the rim of her soda can.

"Makes sense, since you're a know-it-all." Her voice was sweet and complimentary, but her eyes were malicious.

"Better a know-it-all than a…"

"Annabeth," Percy whispered in alarm. I shut my mouth. Calypso had that "I'm the queen of the world" look on her face.

This was going to be a long school year.

* * *

**Calypso POV**

This is going to be an amazing school year! I can't even believe it! _Gods!_ They're half _god!_ How amazing is that?! I knew that Percy was totally sexy but… wow.

I strut down the halls proudly, ignoring all the looks I got. Obviously everyone had seen me sitting with Percy and his friends. I was totally the most popular girl in this school, but Percy was still the reigning king. It was a well-known fact that he wasn't exactly my biggest fan. That really put down my status. Like, a lot. Looks like Calypso Cielo is rocketing to the top!

Just as I was about to make it to my locker, a hand reached out and pulled me into the janitor's closet. I squealed as the door shut behind me. The light bulb turned on overhead, and illuminated Matt Sloan's face.

"What the hell, Sloan?" I slapped his arm, "What did you do that for?" The pig didn't answer me.

"Why are you hanging with those freaks?" He asked.

"Freaks? They're popular you idiot, in case you've forgotten." Sloan was, like, 12th down on the popularity scale.

"Whatever, I don't care. The point is you _dump _me, and now you're all buddy buddy with Jackson. What up with that?"

"Grow up, sweet cheeks. I've… bonded with them." Sloan looked about ready to pull his hair out.

"Have you completely forgotten about me? We dated for, like, weeks. That's a millennium in high school time!" This boy is stupid. But he's also very useful to me.

"And those few weeks were lovely, but I've got a new crowd now." I said smugly.

"But why him? Jackson's a total jerk!" From the mouth of the king.

"Jackson's interesting. Him and his friends are… unique." I said elusively. Sloan totally dug that.

"How? Tell me." He begged. He was so easily trained, like a dog. I could certainly use him as a little leverage with the groupies.

"You really want to know?" I asked with a smile. He nodded. I leaned close to his ear…

* * *

**Percy POV**

"YOU DID _WHAT_?!" Annabeth's scream was so loud, I had to cover my ears. After school, Calypso made all of us meet up in the apartment. Annabeth wasn't a fan of letting her into her home, but Calypso said it was important. Oh boy, it was definitely important.

"I told Sloan you guy's secret." Calypso said in a "no, duh" tone. There was steam coming out of my girlfriend's ears. I was afraid for a second that she was gonna breathe fire. The rest of the room was absolutely silent, still frozen in shock.

"Do you even _realize_ what you're saying?!" Annabeth yelled, "You have put us in so much danger! I _KNEW_ we shouldn't have told her!" Annabeth was pacing… again. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods… this is bad.

"He won't tell. He's too stupid." Annabeth's eyes blazed with absolute fury.

"Then why did you tell him _IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"_ Annabeth sounded like my mom when she found out that I had fallen into Tartarus on purpose.

"He was jealous, and I felt bad. I had to explain somehow." Calypso was acting like this was no big deal!

"Well did you have to tell him the truth?" I was trying to stay calm, but it was hard to keep the anger out of my voice. She shrugged.

And that did it…

Annabeth jumped, but I was faster. I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her down while she clawed the air.

"YOU IDIOTIC, SELF-ABSORBED, EVIL, STUPID…" And then she started cussing Calypso out in Ancient Greek. We're lucky cuss words in Greek and Ancient Greek are different, and that Calypso only knows modern Greek.

"Annabeth! Annabeth!" I shouted. She stopped struggling for a moment and looked back at me, "Can we talk? In private?" I asked. She shoved my hands off of her and stomped towards her room.

"Oh goody, it's our turn to yell." Piper sanded her hands together and stood in front of Calypso while me and Annabeth disappeared.

I walked into her room behind Annabeth and shut the door, muffling the voices in the living room. 3…2…1

"How dare she?! That _vlaca_ out there is going to get us exposed!" Annabeth chewed on her fingernails.

"We'll fix this. How many people do you think are actually going to believe Sloan, if he even tells anyone?" She didn't stop chewing on her nails.

"I knew it, I _knew_ that this was a bad idea." She muttered, "Oh I could just _kill_ her! I will feed her to Mrs. O'Leary!"

"Hey, I don't want to give my dog a stomachache." I joked weakly. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"What are we supposed to do now?" She asked and fell back down on her bed. I walked over and took a seat next to her. She still didn't stop chewing on her teeth, so I reached out and gently took away her hand.

"We work the Mist on Sloan, we slap some sense into Calypso, and then we try and make it through the rest of the school year." I said soothingly.

"What do you mean "we"? If anyone is slapping Calypso, it will be me." She growled. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her.

"I hate her as much as you do, but picking a fight with her while Sloan still knows is a bad idea. He follows her around like a lost puppy, and he'll do anything she says. If she tells him to back her up when she leaks our secrets, he'll do it. If she tells him to do anything bad then it'll happen. For now, we need to stay on her good side." Wow, I sound smart. It's a miracle.

"If we make it through this, I am never going to school with mortals ever again." Her face fell into her hands.

"Camp Half-Blood has always been more of your place than the real world." I said.

"There's a reason for that." She grumbled, "Come on, let's go deal with this."

* * *

Swim practice the next morning was tense. Sloan kept on grinning at me, and I didn't like it.

"What's with the grin?" Hayden asked as we timed the guys, "He's creeping me out." I nodded, and pressed the stopwatch.

"Pick it up, Jones!" I called into the pool. The next round started splashing.

"What do you think he wants?" Hayden asked, "Because he sort of looks like the villain in low-budget movies that's about to tell you he kidnapped your girlfriend." I actually laughed at that.

"Annabeth could kick his butt." Hayden smirked.

"Well, duh. I'm just saying that he's happy about something, and I don't think it's about you-know-what." He blew his whistle to let the swimmers out of the pool.

"You're up, Hayden. Swim fast."

* * *

"JACKSON! Outta the pool!" Coach yelled. I pulled myself out and grabbed a towel.

"Yeah, coach?" I asked breathlessly. He jerked his head towards his office. I followed him, and took a seat across from his desk. Coach Xeno rubbed his eyes wearily.

"I was talking to Sloan this morning." He started. My stomach dropped, "He told me that you cheated during the swim meet." Oh gods, ok. What do I do now?

"How did he say I cheated?" I asked in a voice three octaves higher.

"Well that's where his story gets kinda messed up." Coach shook his head in disbelief, "He started singing about you having mystical powers over water because your real father is a god or something." He chuckled, "Crazy, right?"

"Crazy…" I breathed out. Coach sighed.

"Listen, I'm not supposed to tell you this…" He started, "But Sloan was really freaking out about the whole thing. The only way we could get him to shut up, was to promise to hire a private investigator." My blood froze, "I'm just felt like I should tell you." He slapped the desk and stood up.

"Thanks, Coach." I said softly.

This could be a problem…


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N Ok, this one is very bad, very short, and very dull. I'm leaving on vacation for two weeks and lately my writing time has been kind of minimal. I'll make it up to you in the next chapter!**

* * *

**Annabeth POV**

"Ok, everyone ready?" I whispered, "Does everyone know the plan?"

"Yeah, kidnap Sloan, Mist him, then pretend it never happened." Leo grinned evilly.

"Exactly, now GO!" Percy, Hayden, and Frank ran into the boys locker room where Sloan was last to come out. Some yelling, muffled yelling, and crashing later, they came out dragging Sloan with tape over his mouth.

"Mmmflmfmfmll!" He yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, save it for the precinct." Leo said. You could tell he was loving the whole cop persona.

The guys dragged Sloan into Jason's truck and closed the door. It was a little difficult driving to our apartment without anyone becoming suspicious of the body in the back. It was even more difficult getting him in the elevator! There was an old man already in there when we dragged Sloan in.

"It's a prank," I lied. He nodded suspiciously, and got out at the next stop.

"Let's get this over with. I don't really feel like getting arrested for kidnapping." Frank muttered. We pulled Sloan into the apartment, and shut the door. Piper plopped him into a chair and removed the tape.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He yelled.

"Cleaning up your mess!" Rachel responded.

"You told our secret!"

"Which you shouldn't even know in the first place!" Everyone started yelling all at once.

"HEY!" I shouted. The room fell silent. I gestured to Percy to speak.

"You told Coach our secret out of jealousy you idiot!" He snapped, "Now they have a private investigator on our tail!" Sloan glared at him.

"You think I was gonna let you get away with cheating, Jackson? Just because your daddy's a god or whatever doesn't mean you can do that!" His face was turning dangerously red from the strain of thinking too much.

"That's right, he can't." I slapped Percy's shoulder, "But that's not the problem. The problem is that we can't get exposed! Who knows what would happen to the Western Civilization?"

"The wha?" Sloan asked stupidly.

"None of your business!" Leo said quickly.

"Can we just perform the Mist already and get this over with?" Hazel asked.

"No, we have to yell at him first!" Leo said.

"We already have yelled at him!" Piper yelled.

"Oh for goodness sakes!" Frank picked up a frying pan from the counter and whacked Sloan on the head with it, "There, done!" Rachel cocked her head.

"Is he dead?" Jason bent down to feel his pulse.

"Nah, he's just knocked out." He said.

"Well then let's get him out of here. We can tell him that he passed out or something, and we volunteered to take him home." I said, lifting one of his arms.

"I'll use a little Mist, just to be safe." Piper said, lifting the other. Percy and Jason grabbed the other two limbs, and we hauled off the idiot.

"Hey Calypso," I called down the hall to where she sat, filing her nails.

"What?" She asked through a mouthful of bubblegum.

"We need to talk." Opened the door to an empty classroom. She groaned, but followed Rachel, Piper, Hazel, and me inside. It was lunch, so we hoped nobody would notice we were gone.

"What's this about? I kinda have things to do." Calypso whined. I pulled a chair out for her, and gestured for her to sit down.

"We have a problem." I said simply.

"Heck yeah we do!" Rachel growled. Calypso raised an eyebrow.

"Is this about that Sloan thing again?" She asked in a bored tone.

"Gee, I wonder." Piper rolled her eyes, "Yes it's about that!"

"You told our secret," I cut in, "the thing I specifically told you _not to do!" _I slammed my fist down on the teacher's desk.

"Take a chill pill! It was a one time thing!" Calypso defended herself, "And for the record, I wasn't really listening to you. You'd just told me that Greek gods existed! I was sort of shocked." I resisted the urge to tear my own hair out.

"I swear if celestial bronze actually worked on you…" I muttered. My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath.

"We'll cut to the point," Rachel said, "You can't tell. Ever."

"If people found out about us, we'd be shipped off and dissected…" Piper paused. It was best not to tell Calypso all the secrets about Camp Half-Blood and the Empire State Building.

"The Western Civilization would fall apart, let's leave it at that." I said. Calypso huffed.

"Fine, my lips are sealed." She pulled an imaginary zipper across her lips and locked them.

"Good, because if we find out that you told _another_ person…" I didn't bother finishing my threat. Piper, Hazel, and Rachel filed out. As I was about to follow them, Calypso spoke.

"Annabeth, wait here with me for a moment." Rachel raised an eyebrow curiously. I shrugged and sent them to the lunchroom. I turned around. Calypso leaned against one of the desks, examining her nails.

"You know, sweetie, I figured out why Percy never wanted me." I crossed my arms.

"And that would be?" Calypso's eyes flashed up to me.

"The secret, duh." She said, "That huge part of his life was something that made the two of you closer. Now that I'm in on the secret, there's nothing keeping Percy and I apart." I stepped up so that we were nose to nose.

"You seem to be forgetting about someone." I said coldly. Calypso smiled at me and cocked her head.

"Oh, threatened?" I shook my head.

"Never." Calypso shook her head.

"You should be, honey. Percy is _mine. _At least, he will be." I laughed disbelievingly.

"You go ahead and try, Barbie. If there's one thing in this world I'm sure of, it's that Percy would never leave me." Calypso grinned. It reminded me of that evil grin the Grinch has.

"He's a guy, Annie. They're very basic creatures, easily manipulated." She hissed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're an empousa." Calypso just smirked at me.

"I'm no monster, but I'm more dangerous to you than anything you've ever fought." Oh please.

"I highly doubt that." I said with narrowed eyes. She opened her mouth again as the door opened behind me. Instantly her face brightened.

"What's going on?" Percy asked slowly. I stepped back so that I was out of Calypso's perfume bubble.

"Just some friendly conversation." I said flatly, "Let's go to lunch." I grabbed his hand and tugged him out of the room.

"Bye Percy!" Calypso called after us flirtatiously. I rolled my eyes.

"Ok, you want to tell what that was about?" Percy asked as we walked into the cafeteria.

"Just Calypso being cocky," I said simply, taking his hand, "Let's just go to lunch."

"Hello, hello my lovelies!" I groaned internally as "Ms. Dove" came in as a sub for our science teacher. All the boys in the room sighed happily and stared… including my boyfriend. The only thing that kept me from ripping his arm off, was the fact that he'd once told me Aphrodite looked like me to him. It was sweet, and also a bit creepy.

"I am very excited to be here today! This day is going to be a fun one!" Aphrodite clapped her hands and squealed like a schoolgirl. In the front row, Calypso paid no attention, as usual.

Aphrodite walked up to the board in her five inch heels and started drawing.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this week in class we are doing a social project!" She announced excitedly.

"Um, Ms. Dove?" I raised my hand, "We are actually studying…" She shushed me with her hand.

"Well, I suppose you'll get this week to take a break, hm?" There was this mischievous glint in her eyes that I really didn't trust.

"So what is the project?" Calypso asked. I guess the fact that I didn't like Ms. Dove made Calypso absolutely adore her.

"The project, sweet cakes, is what I like to call a social study." Aphrodite wrote the two words on the board in perfectly neat handwriting, "I will pair all of you up with someone of the opposite gender. For the rest of the week you will conduct a series of experiments on said partner." She explained. The class groaned when she said that she would be picking the partners.

"Now, then: partners!" She sang. In her irritatingly perfect handwriting, Aphrodite then wrote down all the partners on the board. I got paired up with one of the guys from Percy's swim team, Jared. He looked over and smiled kindly at me. He was Percy's friend, so I wasn't too worried about him. What I was worried about was the fact that Percy and Calypso got paired. She looked over and cast him a flirtatious wink that made me want to strangle her. From the look Aphrodite was giving me, I can easily assume that she did that on purpose.

What was her endgame? Did she really want Percy and Calypso to end up together? Was she just trying to push my buttons? What was the point?! Ugh, I hate gods.

"For today, all we are going to do is quiz your partners. Fill out this worksheet, and turn it in to me at the end of the day." Aphrodite skipped down the aisles to hand out the paper. It was pretty basic: what's your favorite book? Do you have any siblings? And so on, and so on.

Honestly, I did try to focus. It was hard not to keep glancing over at Percy and Calypso every few minutes. I was lucky Jared wasn't one of the more stupid guys on Percy's swim team, and understood why I was so distracted.

"Eyes on your own partner, Annabeth." Aphrodite reprimanded. I grit my teeth to keep myself silent. This was going to be a long, long week…


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N I AM SO SORRY! Yes, I realize it's been a month, maybe even more, since I last updated this story! Life just got in the way, and for that I apologize! Hopefully, the next few chapters make up for it! **

* * *

**Percy POV**

Ring!

Thank the gods, saved by the bell.

"So Percy," Calypso popped her bubblegum, "it says here that for tomorrow's social study homework we need to go to each other's houses and see how we each live. You want to start at my place?" She bat her eyes in my direction as I gathered my books. Oh man, Annabeth… but I also needed a passing grade in science…

"Ok, fine." I grumbled, "Give me the address and I'll meet you there." Calypso giggled.

"Silly Percy, why don't I just drive you there?"

"Um, I don't think…"

"Great!" She clapped, "Meet you at my car after school!" Hm, maybe I can convince Annabeth to tag along…

"Remember class, it's groups of _two _not _three."_ Ms. Dove oh-so-conveniently yelled out. I did what any guy in my position would do: banged me head on the table.

"Come on, Percy. You can't risk losing any more brain cells." Annabeth gently lifted my head off of the table.

"I get the feeling that Lady Love is against us." I mumbled. Annabeth sighed.

"We'll figure this out later, ok? Let's just go get lunch."

* * *

Annabeth was glaring daggers at Calypso as I got in her car after school. I didn't blame her. I think I'll take her out for dinner or something this weekend to make her feel better.

"Buckle up, Percy!" Calypso sang. I groaned and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Let's get this over with." She smirked and pulled out of the parking lot. The entire way to her house, she babbled on and on about makeup and kids in our class and other junk I wasn't listening to.

"Oh, we're here!" She smiled at me and pulled into the big, winding, driveway. My eyes widened as I looked up at her house. I mean, I knew she was rich and all because of her mom's job, but I didn't know that she had such a huge house…

Calypso tapped on my window excitedly and gestured for me to follow her inside.

"So this is the foyer, and that's the family room." Calypso pointed out different rooms to me. Everything had fancy furniture, elaborate paintings, and a lot of trinkets I was pretty sure I shouldn't touch.

"It's… nice." I said, looking around. Calypso grinned at me.

"Come, Percy, let's go say hello to my parents!" Whoa, meeting the parents? Um… that sounds kinda awkward. I've had some issues with meeting other people's parents… particularly the immortal mother of my girlfriend.

Calypso dragged me through some random hallways to a big wooden door.

"Mommy, Daddy, I have a friend I'd like you to meet!" She sang as we entered. Haha, right, "friend".

A man in a business suit with perfectly trimmed hair sat behind a mahogany desk. Beside him, a tall woman with curly, brown hair and light blue eyes peered over his shoulder at a laptop. Calypso's father peered over his eyeglasses to look at me.

"Who is this?" He asked, pointing a pen at me. Mrs. Cielo's eyes lightened up when she saw me.

"Oh, I think I know who this is." She winked at me, "Mr. Jackson, right?" I winced and blushed all at once.

"Uh, yeah. Nice to er… meet you." Her father reached out and shook my head. Di immortals he's got a firm shake!

"So you're Percy Jackson?" Mr. Cielo laced his fingers together, "My daughter has told us a lot about you." Wonderful. Gotta get out of this situation…

"Yes, I…"

"I certainly hope you're taking good care of my baby." He interrupted me.

"Um, actually sir…"

"Oh you're such a handsome young man, aren't you?" Mrs. Cielo cooed, "That's my girl, always picks them well."

"Ma'am, you should probably know…"

"Oh they're just teasing." Calypso giggled, "Percy and I are just friends." She said, "For now anyways." I wrung my hands together.

"That's right, uh just friends. I've already got a girlfriend." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"A girlfriend? Who could be better than my little girl here?" Red alert, red alert!

"Um… uh…"

"You know what? We have a project that we need to get to so…" Calypso grabbed my arm and pulled me out the door, "Adios."

"Nice meeting you, Percy!" Her mom yelled after me. I waved as we exited into the hallway again.

"So, to your house?"

* * *

I'd warned my mom about Calypso before I brought her over. I wasn't sure whether I wanted Annabeth to be there or not. On the one hand, I needed Annabeth right now. On the other… Annabeth and Calypso in the same room is a bad thing.

But I guess it's just my luck that Annabeth was helping my mom out in the kitchen when we got there.

"That you, Percy?" Annabeth called. I threw my jacket and backpack on the couch. Calypso had a poker face on.

"Um, yeah. You and Jared finished already?" I called.

"Well I don't exactly have a home life he can see, so we just came here. Since he's already been here we got done pretty…" Even in a separate room I could hear the gears in her head click.

_Thud, thud, thud_. Annabeth's steps sounded on the floor as she slowly walked into the living room, with a kitchen knife in her hand. If that wasn't chilling enough, the look on her face would have sent the big bad wolf running home.

"Calypso, you're here." She said calmly. Behind me, she gulped.

"Why are you holding a knife?" I asked her.

"I was chopping vegetables." Annabeth said with pursed lips.

"You know, Percy, we should probably get finished with our work." Calypso sneered, "Why don't we go to your room?"

"Or, we could stay in the living room, with witnesses." I suggested. Calypso put on a pouty lip, but didn't protest.

"I guess I'll just be in the kitchen." Annabeth said uneasily.

"I'll be in when we're finished." I said, kissing her cheek tenderly, "Love you." I grinned cheekily at her. She patted my cheek.

"Love you too, Seaweed Brain. Finish up with the Barbie over there or we'll eat without you." She winked and returned to the kitchen.

"Percy! I'm waiting!" Calypso said impatiently. I rolled my eyes and sat down in a chair away from her. I thought back to when we were at her house.

"Calypso, what did you tell your parents about me?" I asked. She shrugged.

"Oh, the truth. How hot you are, how you're my future boyfriend…" I smacked my forehead.

"You need to stop saying things like that. It's never gonna happen!" Calypso just giggled.

"Oh sweetie, you're so naïve." She said, "Don't you realize? There's nothing standing between us anymore! I know the secret, and now we can be together." I raised one of my eyebrows.

"You really think it's that easy? In case you've forgotten, I'm in love with someone else. That isn't changing anytime soon." Calypso sighed.

"Whatever you say. Just remember, things can change." She pulled out her folder, "But anyways, the worksheet?"

For the next twenty minutes, I sat there and answered questions about how my and Calypso's home lives were different while she wrote them down in annoyingly perfect handwriting. Annabeth never had perfect handwriting. She always wrote too fast for it to be neat.

"Ok, this is the last one." Calypso said, tapping her pen, "How are your family members at home different?"

"Well, my mom's sort of a homemaker and I have a stepdad. You have two parents that are sorta business-y." She nodded, writing each word.

"And don't forget the blonde bimbo…" She muttered.

"Hey!" Her eyes snapped up innocently, "Don't talk about Annabeth like that." I said grimly. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll leave her out of the paper. " Calypso capped her pen.

"Ok, goodbye!" I said, opening the front door.

"See you tomorrow, cutie." She winked at me and (finally) left.

"It's about time!" Annabeth said behind me, "For a second there I thought she was moving in." I smiled at her.

"It was twenty minutes, Annabeth."

"Probably one of the worst twenty minutes of my life." She grumbled. I opened my mouth to mention Tartarus, but then stopped myself. We didn't talk about it. She gave me a knowing look.

"I know, Percy." She said quietly, "It's a figure of speech." For a moment, she was silent. With Annabeth, that almost never happens. I walked across the living room to her side. Instead of asking what was wrong, I just hugged her.

"Sorry." I murmured. She buried her head in my shoulder and gripped my shoulders.

"It's fine, Percy." She whispered, "We're alive. That's what counts." Annabeth straightened up and smiled sadly at me, "Let's go eat dinner."

"Speaking of dinner, why don't we go out tomorrow?" I asked. Annabeth crossed her arms.

"What's the catch?" She asked suspiciously. I twined our fingers together.

"Well I figured since you're a little irritated about me being paired with Calypso I owed you a night out together. It's been a while since we've been on a date without monsters or teenage girls around." Annabeth chuckled.

"It's a date."

* * *

Ok, flowers? Check. Clean shirt? Check. Riptide? Well, duh. Check. I was really hoping that this night would go monster-free, but with our current issue with Aphrodite I seriously doubted that.

"Well, aren't you handsome?" Annabeth said fondly as she walked out of her apartment. Even in plain jeans and a t-shirt she looked absolutely stunning.

"Look at that, you brushed your hair for me." I teased.

"It's not like I have an upcoming battle in the way. I've actually got time to brush my teeth and stuff now." She said, taking my hand, "So where are we going tonight?"

"I was thinking picnic in Central Park." I said.

"Oh really? Impressive." Annabeth said as we walked down the street towards the park. I'd gone down earlier and set up. A couple of nymphs were guarding it until we got there.

"I have my days, Wise Girl." She laughed. We turned into the park.

"Did you remember to burn some of the food for the gods? A few in particular…" I nodded.

"Of course I did! I don't want any gods getting even more angry with us." Annabeth sighed.

"Don't get me started. I woke up this morning, and all of my clothes were dresses and heels." I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Annabeth noticed, and elbowed my ribs, "It's not funny! I had to borrow some of Piper's things!"

"Whatever, you look beautiful." I complimented her. She blushed and looked down at her feet.

After a couple minutes of comfortable silence, we reached our destination. A checkered picnic blanket lay out beside a creek. For tonight, I'd gotten Annabeth's favorite food: pizza with olives. Lots and lots of olives.

"Aw, Percy!" Annabeth squeezed my hand, "this is so sweet of you." I ran my fingers through my hair sheepishly.

"Yeah, well, I owe you." She laughed.

"Not anymore." Annabeth stretched up and kissed my nose, "It's lovely, thank you. Shall we?"

You know, it's kind of incredible. We went through a whole fifteen minutes of monster-free conversation.

But, we're two powerful demigods sitting in the middle of a park at night. Our luck never lasts too long.

"Did you hear that, Percy?" Annabeth asked, twisting to look back into the trees. I cocked my head, and listened for a second. There was a snuffling sound, like an animal searching for food.

"Oh Hades, he reformed." Annabeth was on her feet, dagger out before I could say 'Minotaur'.

The big bull man himself came lumbering out of the woods, nose held high in the air. A sudden gust of wind jostled the leaves, and blew our scent straight towards him. The Minotaur roared, and charged.

"Duck and roll!" I yelled, stepping aside. The Minotaur ran straight through us and right into a tree.

"By now you should be able to kill him with your eyes closed." Annabeth joked. She spit some hair out of her mouth as the Minotaur disentangled itself.

"You'd think, wouldn't you?" I grumbled. Can't a guy have a nice date with his girlfriend without a bull man barging in?

"RRROOOAAAARRR!" The Minotaur kicked the ground, preparing to charge at us.

"Battle plan Eta?" I asked.

"I call first offense!" She yelled. I rolled my eyes and lifted up my sword. The glint of bronze attracted the monster, and he turned towards me.

"Come here, smelly!" I called. Hopefully he'd come at me while Annabeth injured his legs, to minimize chance of escape. Then Annabeth would take his attention while I finished him off.

He charged at me with full speed. Annabeth knelt on the side of his path, dagger at the ready. The moment he crossed her path, she slashed out, causing him to stumble and slow down. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled.

"Look at me!" She yelled in a high pitched voice. His beady little eyes searched around for the source of the sound as I ran towards him. My sword sliced through his chest, covering the two of us with golden monster dust.

"Oh, ew!" Annabeth crinkled her nose and tried to brush it off, "Now I have to pay for Piper's dry cleaning." She muttered.

"I think you look good in gold." I teased. Annabeth smirked at me.

"Back at you, Seaweed Brain." She said as she sheathed her dagger. Annabeth rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, "Well, nothing better than a good monster-slaying before bed." I chuckled.

"So, do we finish the date here or on the way home?" Annabeth gave me her signature know-it-all look.

"Unless you want to kiss me and end up getting monster dust in your eyes, I think we should head back and finish our picnic on your fire escape." She said, putting her hands on my shoulders. I reached up to hold them.

"You know, I think before we leave I'd like some dust in my eyes…" She smirked wryly, and leaned forward to touch her lips to mine.

* * *

**Aphrodite's POV**

"Oh dang it!" I slapped the arm of my throne in frustration. This day was not working out so well for me.

"Aphrodite? What are you up to over there?" Poseidon strolled calmly into the throne room, twirling his trident in his hand. I snapped my fingers and changed the channel from the Percabeth show to some game show.

"Oh, nothing." That's working anyways… Poseidon scratched his beard knowingly.

"Aphrodite, I know what you're doing to my son." I sighed, and returned my channel.

"I'm not trying to break them up!" I said as he sat in his throne, "I just want them to argue a teeny weeny bit." He rolled his eyes.

"You do realize it isn't going to work?"

"Well I'm starting to! I sent the Minotaur after them, and it only brings them closer together! I push Calypso in between them and it only slightly irritates Annabeth. I can't win!"

"Why are you doing this? If the Fates have willed this to be so, then you shouldn't be meddling!" Oh pish posh.

"Percabeth is my favorite couple of all time! My meddling will only strengthen what the Fates have forseen!" Barnacle Beard shook his head.

"Leave it alone, Aphrodite." I put on my pouty lip.

"But Calypso needs to stay encouraged long enough… plus it's a little revenge on Annabeth for me! It's absolutely perfect!" He looked at me like a father looking at his troublesome teenager.

"No more, Ms. Dove, no more."

* * *

**Percy POV**

After an entire week of "Calypso time", I was glad to finally leave school. Winter break at Camp Half-Blood, here I come! We were all heading straight into camp after school to maximize our time there.

Annabeth and I met up with the other demigods and Rachel by the front doors when the bell FINALLY rung. Snow had lightly begun to fall outside.

"Oh, Percy!" I cringed.

"Oh come on! We were so close." Leo hit his head on the door. Calypso ran to meet up with us at the door.

"Where are you guys headed to?" She asked perkily. I looked at Annabeth. She pursed her lips in anger.

"Camp. For us only. Goodbye." She grabbed my hand (a little too tightly for my liking) and tugged me out into the cold.

"But I know now! Can't I come with you?" I almost laughed in disbelief. None of us answered as we piled into our cars and drove out of the parking lot, leaving Calypso in the snow.

The ride felt short. That was probably because Jason kept manipulating the wind to blow snowballs at our car while I manipulated the water in the snow to throw them right back. It turned into a full-blown snowball fight in the middle of the road! How awesome is that?!

"This snowstorm's getting worse. If we don't get to camp soon we're gonna be stranded," Annabeth said, squinting through the snow.

"Nah, I'll just use my awesome godly powers to get us through the snow." I said proudly. Annabeth punched me in the arm, "Ow! What was that for?"

"Uh… punch buggy." She said, "Now help me look for the exit."

"No need! I see Thalia's Pine!" Leo pointed up from the back seat.

"I think Thalia is coming for a few days this week." Annabeth said with a smile, "You know what that means."

"Oh yeah, Capture the Flag with the Hunters!" Leo clapped, "We're totally beating their butts this time!"

"Uh-huh, sure." Piper said doubtfully. Annabeth pulled over by Half-Blood Hill and we started piling out.

"Quick! Get over the border before you're buried in snow!" Frank yelled, carrying both his and Hazel's bags in his hands.

"Too late, already there!" Jason called from the top of the hill.

"You cheated! He flew up there!" Piper yelled as she hiked up through the dusting of snow. Annabeth slapped my arm.

"Race you," She said with a glint in her eyes.

"Oh, you're on!" The two of us ran side by side up the hill towards the pine. I was starting to get a lead, so Annabeth used her super strategic mind against me and threw her bag into my path. I tripped, and got a face full of frozen frosty-ness.

"Cheat!" I yelled to the ground. I heard Annabeth laughing from a distance. All of a sudden, she stopped. The entire hill was silent, "Annabeth?" I lifted my head out of the snow to find myself face to feet with a pair of designer boots.

"Hi Percy!" My heart sank down into the ground as I looked up to see Calypso's face smiling down at me.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N I am so sorry for this long update... again. To say sorry, I made you wait a bit longer so this chapter is extra long! Now I know a lot of you are done with the irritating Calypso (I know I am!) so this is the last chapter she makes an appearance! The next chapter you will see a totally different side of her! Promise! This story will NOT be abandoned!**

* * *

**Percy POV**

"C-C-Calypso!?" I stuttered. She wiggled her fingers at me.

"Guess who's here?!" She said in excitement. I clambered to my feet, slipping on the snow as I went. Annabeth slid down the hill on her shoes towards us.

"What are you _doing_ here?" I asked her, still shocked.

"Well I followed you, duh." She said, as though it should be obvious.

"That isn't possible, we would have seen you." Annabeth interjected. I shook my head.

"Not with the storm…" I said softly. Calypso smirked.

"You can't be here. This place isn't for mortals." Annabeth said coldly, taking my arm to keep me from slipping further. Calypso just laughed.

"Rachel's mortal," She said.

"She's a different matter, and none of your concern." Annabeth snapped, "Now leave." Calypso examined her nails casually.

"Or what?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"I'll make you." She said, acid in her tone. Calypso gulped, but quickly shook it off.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Jason and Piper came sliding down the hill, "We need to get inside, this storm's getting really bad."

"We have to deal with _her_ first!" Annabeth yelled angrily.

"As much as I hate to say it… we have to allow her entrance." Piper groaned, "There's no way she can make it home in this storm, and we can't just leave her by the road."

"Why not?" Annabeth asked. Piper gave her a look. Calypso clapped her hands.

"Oh this is just perfect!" She squealed, "It's like the gods _want_ me to be here!" There was practically steam coming out of Annabeth's ears. I wouldn't be surprised if she started breathing fire right now…

"We'll see about that." Annabeth growled, "Percy, come on. We're going to Chiron." She grabbed my hand and towed me up the hill as the snow swirled around us. Behind us, Piper permitted Calypso entrance to the camp, and brought her inside.

Camp was the same as it always was in the winter. A light dusting of snow barely covered the ground, making everything look like a winter wonderland. Greek fire glowed from torches assorted around the grounds, and snow fell from the sky, but never hit the ground. It was perfect.

Except for the fact that my girlfriend was on an angry rampage.

"Chiron!" She roared as we entered the Big House, "We have a serious issue!" Chiron wheeled out of the study in his wheelchair.

"What is it, child?" He asked. Annabeth was digging her nails into the palm of my hand. I winced at the pain, but would rather she scratch my hand than Calypso's eyes.

"You remember that very irritating girl I once told you about? The one that's in love with Percy?" He nodded, "She's here." Chiron's eyes widened, which is about as surprised as I've ever seen him.

"A mortal girl? _Here?_" I nodded.

"Yup." I said, "She followed us here from school, and now we can't send her back because of the storm." Chiron pursed his lips.

"I see…" He murmured, "I suppose we could have Hermes transport her back to her home." He suggested.

"No, we can't." Frank walked in through the front door, "Sorry to interrupt." He said sheepishly.

"Forget about it, why can't Hermes send her back?" Annabeth asked.

"She keeps saying that if we send her back she's going to tell everyone the secret." He told us.

"She's bluffing," I scoffed. Annabeth shook her head slowly.

"No, she isn't. Percy she's done it before. Are you forgetting about Sloan?" I winced.

"That reminds me, we've still got a private investigator on our tail. If we let Calypso go…"

"Then she'll tell him everything." Annabeth finished. She groaned and punched a nearby couch, "Great. We have to let her stay." My hand was starting to really sting from her grip.

"Annabeth? Could you go tear apart a training dummy and _not_ my hand please?" She looked down, and then loosened her grip.

"Sorry," She murmured, "Just frustrated."

"Yeah, tell that to the claw marks on my palm." I muttered. She rolled her eyes. Chiron rubbed his forehead like he had a migraine.

"She can stay in a room here in the Big House for now." He said, "The Hunters arrive in the morning, possibly tonight, which means…"

"Capture the Flag tomorrow!" Even Calypso couldn't ruin that for me! Malcolm had let it slip that the Athena cabin and the Hunters had made an alliance against the rest of the camp. This game was going to be the best one in years!

"Campers, go to the dining pavilion and enjoy your dinner. We can handle the Calypso situation later."

The moment we step out of the Big House she demands a tour of the entire camp.

"I want to see _everything_!" She said smugly.

"You're mortal, so you don't get to see _everything."_ Annabeth mocked her, "You're lucky you're here and not out in the freezing cold like I wanted you to be!" Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, Blondie, I'm already here! You might as well show me around a little!" Before Annabeth could punch her lights out, Hazel stepped in.

"I can show you around." She said reluctantly, "We can start with the strawberry fields." Before Calypso could object, Hazel and Frank were towing her away.

"Saved by the metal detector," Leo said appreciatively, "Well, I'm gonna go and check on Festus. See you guys later!" With that lovely goodbye, he ran off towards the entrance to Bunker Nine.

* * *

**Hazel POV**

The last thing I wanted to do when I visited Camp Half-Blood, was show around Calypso. But I figured Percy and Annabeth needed a break from her. Since Frank and I were still getting used to Camp ourselves, the tour wouldn't be too extensive.

"And those are the cabins." I pointed to the Omega shaped line of cabins. I was pretty sure Annabeth wouldn't be too happy with Calypso in her cabin, "You probably shouldn't go down there. The other demigods wouldn't be too happy about a mortal coming so close to where they sleep."

"We aren't too happy with her in camp at all." A disturbingly familiar voice said from behind us. Even Calypso flinched a little.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Little Miss Perfect." Clarisse sneered, "I can't believe Prissy and Princess let you in here."

"They didn't have a choice." Frank muttered, "Calypso, you remember Clarisse."

"Vaguely." She winced. Percy had told us about the time Clarisse had beaten the snot out of her. Clarisse sneered at her.

"Welcome to camp." She said viciously, "Time for initiation!" Normally, we try to stop Clarisse's "initiations" of new campers but…

Clarisse grabbed Calypso by the arm and towed her towards the bathrooms.

"What are you _doing?!"_ Calypso screeched.

"Welcoming you." Clarisse cackled. She shoved Calypso into one of the girl's stalls.

"I have _got_ to see this!" Leo laughed, appearing out of nowhere, holding a hand-held camera. I eyed it with curiosity, "Oh, Annabeth and Percy are busy, and so I'm taping this epic moment for them." Leo explained proudly. He zipped into the women's bathroom and straight into the stall beside Clarisse's.

"Ok! A little to the left, forward, no now backwards!" Leo instructed her as he leaned over the side to look down at the show.

"LET ME GO!" Calypso shouted, her voice echoing off the wall.

"That's perfect! ACTION!" Leo called. Frank and I peeked over her shoulder as she plunged Calypso's head into the toilet and flushed. There was a gargling, and Calypso resurfaced, sputtering.

"Just _one more_ for good luck." Clarisse smirked, and Calypso went swimming once more.

"This is pure gold!" Leo exclaimed with excitement, slapping the camera, "I am totally selling copies of this out of my locker!"

"I'll buy one!" Frank chuckled. I'm sure I would buy one too… if I knew what he meant by "copies". How do you copy a camera, anyways?

Eventually, Clarisse got tired of welcoming Calypso to camp, and set her free.

"YOU'RE PAYING FOR THIS TOP! IT IS DESIGNER!" She yelled as Clarisse walked away, laughing with her goonies. Calypso stood in a puddle of water, clothes soaked, and makeup most definitely running.

"Let's just go talk to Chiron now." I said, biting back my laughter, "Maybe he has an extra shirt for you or something." She wiped the bit of mascara building up under her eyes, and followed me up to the big house.

Chiron and Mr. D sat on the porch playing Pinochle, as always while Percy and Annabeth bickered back and forth a few feet away. The two of them looked up as we arrived with a sopping wet Calypso. Annabeth's irritation seemed to melt away the moment she saw Clarisse covered in toilet water. Chiron didn't seem to find it very fun, but Mr. D was snickering behind his Diet Coke can.

"Frank, why don't you go into the supply closet and see if we have any dry shirts for Ms. Cielo." Chiron said, wheeling over to us.

"Give her one of those ones that the Stoll's dyed blue. Those look terrible!" Leo yelled after him. Calypso glared at the two boys, but said nothing.

"Well, well, well, look who got the Clarisse treatment." An amused voice said behind us. Annabeth's grin spread so wide she looked like the Cheshire Cat.

"THALIA!" She shouted, and ran to hug the hunter, "You're here!" Thalia reached out and squeezed her friend.

"Yes, and I see someone _else_ is here." She said, eyeing Calypso with disdain.

"Yup," Calypso popped her lips, "In the flesh." Her eyes looked the group of hunters up and down, "What is this? A demigod gang?" One of the hunter's wolves stepped forward and growled.

"Easy," One of the hunters murmured, Phoebe I believe.

"We're the Hunters of Artemis." Thalia said flatly.

"You mean the immortal gang of girls that hunts monsters?" Calypso asks. Thalia nodded.

"Annabeth, why is _she_ here?" Annabeth ground her teeth.

"We were followed." She grumbled, "And the snowstorm locked her in." Thalia twirled an arrow between her fingers.

"Well that sucks." She said, "But nothing's going to spoil tomorrow night!"

"What's tomorrow?" Calypso asked. Annabeth looked to Percy.

"It's Capture the Flag," He explained, "Between _most_ of the cabins, and the Hunters." He looked pointedly at Annabeth, who did her best to look innocent.

"Oooh, sounds like fun!" She oh-so-obviously lied.

"It is, and you can watch just how much fun it is from the sidelines." Annabeth muttered under her breath.

* * *

**Percy POV**

The next day wasn't too bad. Calypso spent most of her time in the Big House talking with Chiron and Mr. D, which meant she wasn't out irritating us. Annabeth finally admitted to me that her cabin and the hunters were going against the rest of them camp (including me) in Capture the Flag. Of course, half of the camp knew that anyways. The Stolls are pretty good at getting information out of people, such as Annabeth's brother, Malcolm.

Capture the Flag was in the air! Clarisse was sharpening Maimer (cough, Lamer, cough), the Hunters and the Athena's were locked up in the Athena cabin strategizing, Leo hadn't left Bunker Nine all day, and me? Well, I was playing with Mrs. O'Leary.

What? A guy can't play with his dog while the rest of the camp prepares for fake war?

The moment I stepped into the ring, she looked up from the practice dummy she was chewing on with a look that obviously said: _Where have you been?_

"Hey girl!" I greeted her. She bounded to her feet and charged towards me, effectively knocking me on my back. Before long, my clothes were soaked.

"I missed you too!" I laughed, pushing her off. She brought me the head of one of the dummies to play fetch with

"Say your goodbyes, Jackson." A familiar voice said from behind me. I turned to see Annabeth leaning against the gate of the arena, "You won't be able to throw that head by the time I'm done with you." She smirked.

"That's what you think, Chase." I said, playing along with the whole last names thing. I do prefer Seaweed Brain, though. Annabeth strolled over and patted Mrs. O'Leary on the head.

"Shouldn't you be training?" She asked, "I mean, no matter what I'm gonna whoop your butt, but I like a fair fight." I rolled my eyes.

"Don't get too cocky. I've got the Stolls on my side." Annabeth laughed and faced me.

"I've got the Stolls covered." She said confidently, "Athena always has a plan, remember?"

"How could I forget?" I muttered. She chuckled.

"Have you heard from the wicked witch this morning?" She asked. I shook my head.

"She's been with Chiron and Mr. D all day." Thank the gods, "What are they talking about anyways?" She sat down on one of the benches and began throwing the head for Mrs. O'Leary.

"I think Chiron's trying to figure out why she's here." Annabeth said. I sat down next to her, and we took turns throwing.

"Isn't it obvious? She's in love with me." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"And you called me cocky," She muttered, "That's not all. I've been thinking about this for a while now. Remember when you met Rachel?" That's kind of hard to forget. She _had_ saved my life from evil skeleton warriors at Annabeth's favorite piece of architecture.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Annabeth "accidentally" smacked my arm as she threw the head for my hellhound.

"Rachel and you were never meant to end up together." She explained, "You found her because she was meant to become our new Oracle. You met her for a reason."

"And… you think that _Calypso _somehow has a place here at camp." Annabeth shrugged.

"That's the best theory I have. If there weren't a reason, then the gods would have done something to keep her from finding camp. The last thing they would want is a mortal in camp, especially Calypso." Annabeth grimaced as she said her name.

"She isn't a demigod, that's for sure." I said, "She couldn't cross the border without Piper granting her entrance, and she has both her parents." Annabeth nodded.

"Luckily. I don't think I could handle it if she ended up being around 24/7." She shuddered.

"Tell me about it." I muttered, "Why don't we just worry about her later?" I suggested, putting my arm around her shoulders, "We're at camp again, and Thalia's here, and tonight I'm going win…" Annabeth laughed and punched my arm.

"We'll see about that, Seaweed Brain." There's my Annabeth.

"Kiss for good luck?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows. She smiled and rolled her eyes.

"I'll make you a deal: you win tonight and I will go on a lovely moonlit walk on the beach with you. I win, and our date's gonna be sparring where I will continue to beat you up a _second_ time." I held out my hand as Mrs. O'Leary ran after another dummy.

"You're on!"

* * *

Dinner that night was probably the most rushed meal ever eaten at Camp Half-Blood. Everyone was pumped for tonight's game. I think even the nymphs were looking forward to being spectators. Normally they weren't very fond of so many people with weapons near their trees.

After everyone was finally finished eating, the two teams met up to get into their armor.

"Remember, the Hunters are known for their offensive skills. If you see an arrow coming at you, duck and cover and get as far away as you can. Try not to get spotted by any of them or they _will not_ hesitate to attack." I reminded everyone as I strapped on my breastplate.

"We _know_ that, Prissy." Clarisse growled, "We've got it covered."

"You bet we do!" Connor called over the crowd, "Travis, Leo and I have this entire forest booby trapped with only our finest!" the three high fived each other proudly.

"I'm gonna keep watch from the sky. You know, bird's eye view." Jason said.

"Speaking of which…" Frank transformed himself into a hawk and landed on Hazel's shoulder.

"Frank and I will help guard the flag." She said. Frank flapped his wings in agreement.

"Alright, everyone know who's going over the border and who's staying to play defense?" Most nodded, some pumped their fists in the air and shouted. Oh yeah, we're going to win. The conch sounded, and the game began.

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" I shouted.

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" My team cheered.

This time around, we'd put our flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. Jason and Frank circled the skies while Piper and Hazel patrolled the ground.

"Hey Percy!" Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin caught up to me, "My siblings and I stirred these potions this morning. It'll make the Hunters think they're tree nymphs." She handed me a couple of vials to slip into my pocket.

"Thanks, Lou. Go hand them out." She nodded, and ran back to her siblings. I traveled deeper into the forest on my own. Every now and then I'd see one of the Stolls creeping around through the trees, but they'd be gone when I looked again. Before we'd started I suggested we travel in pairs or groups of one so that we didn't draw attention. These Hunters could track like nobody's business, and we didn't need to make it any easier for them.

When I was pretty deep into enemy territory, I heard the one thing that chilled me to my bone.

"Oh, Percy!" Her voice rang clear through the trees, giving my location away to everyone in a half a mile radius. I turned around to see Calypso walking towards me.

"What are you _doing?_ This is too dangerous for you!" I hissed.

"I wanted to watch, but there were too many trees in the way!" I smacked my forehead.

"Calypso, you have to get…" My sentence was cut short by a whizzing sound, and a sharp pain on my shoulder. An arrow had grazed it. That could only mean one thing.

"Attack!" A voice yelled. Footsteps started pounding in my direction.

"Calypso, go back to camp!" I shouted, and started to run, but she grabbed my arm.

"No! You can't leave me with these savages!" I tried to shake her off, but she wouldn't budge!

"Ah-ha!" Thalia bounded out of the cover of the trees, bow raised. Her eyes widened at the sight of Calypso, "What is she doing in here?" Annabeth and a few of her siblings ran in from my right.

"She's being irritating." I growled, "Calypso, go back to camp!"

"Will you walk me there?" She asked, batting her eyelashes. Was this girl _serious?_

"I'm a little busy here, just walk in that direction." I turned her towards the camp and started walking forward a few steps when all of a sudden WHAM! I fell into a hole. There was an awful crunching sound, and a sharp pain in my leg. The whole back of my skull felt like it was going to burst into flames it hurt so bad! My vision was blurry, but as I looked up about ten feet above me, a pipe jutted out of the wall of the hole, and began dousing me with blue slime that smelled like dead fish. There was lots of shouting going on above ground. It all sounded mucky and faded, like I was underwater.

"…your fault!" I recognized Annabeth's voice through my daze.

"…sorry… here… with me!" Was that Calypso?

"Enough… Chiron… Stolls!" I'm pretty sure that's Thalia. I strained to hear more, but before long I was falling into yet another pit called unconsciousness.

* * *

When I finally came to, a familiar blonde was sitting by my bed feeding me ambrosia.

"I think this is the part where you ask me what happens at the summer solstice." I murmured, still have asleep. Annabeth smirked.

"You know, you still drool when you sleep." She said, playing along with the nostalgia. I pushed myself into a sitting position, and groaned.

"Ugh, my head…"

"That fall knocked all the seaweed out of your brain." Annabeth said, pushing me back down, "You shouldn't get up yet."

"What happened?" I asked groggily as she shoved more ambrosia in my mouth.

"Calypso happened." Annabeth growled, "She showed up in the middle of Capture the Flag to _flirt_ with you." She rolled her eyes, "Almost got you killed, too. If you had landed the wrong way in that pit the Stolls dug…" I reached out and took her hand.

"I'll be fine." I said comfortingly. She huffed.

"I am _this close_ to just…" Annabeth got cut off by a knocking at the door.

"Is he awake?" I cringed at the sound of her voice. Annabeth glowered at the door.

"He is, and he doesn't want to see you." She growled. Calypso walked in anyways.

"I just wanted to apologize." Surprisingly, she really did sound sorry. Annabeth's face softened… a little. She closed her mouth and looked down at me. I nodded.

"Percy, I'm really sorry for getting you hurt." She said, "I just wanted to say hi and get a better view."

"Yeah right." Annabeth muttered. Calypso glared at her.

"Got something to say to me?" She snapped. Annabeth stood up.

"Actually, I do." Oh boy, "If you had just kept your nose out of our business, he wouldn't be in here in the first place!"

"Maybe if you weren't all so secretive, I wouldn't have to find things out for myself!"

"Can't you just follow directions and understand that it's for your own safety, as well as ours! Percy's proof of what happens when you don't listen to us!"

"Well _maybe_ if you would have just told me that staying with the horse man would keep Percy out of the infirmary I would have listened!"

"I shouldn't have to tell you that! When a bunch of teenagers go into the woods holding sharp objects, you should know to stay away!"

"Ahem," Chiron politely knocked on the door, "Ladies, perhaps Mr. Jackson would like some quiet time to rest." Annabeth closed her mouth and Calypso smiled sheepishly.

"I suppose I'll go… somewhere." Calypso said, and exited. Chiron turned back to Annabeth and I.

"You wished to speak to me, Annabeth?" She nodded, and sat down on the edge of my bed.

"I want to know what you've learned about her reason for being here." Annabeth asked. Chiron wheeled closer to us. Probably so that he could speak quietly so nobody else could hear.

"I have a theory," He said, "Based on a prophecy I once heard from one of our older Oracles." I looked at him expectantly.

"Is this one of those things that we need to figure out on our own?" Chiron smiled kindly.

"The Fates are at work, and I don't want to change the course they have created." Annabeth was biting her lip. She hated not knowing things.

"Is there anything you _can_ tell us?" Chiron patted her hand in understanding.

"I can tell you that everything that has happened since you began at Goode High School, has happened for a reason."

"Even Trinity and Hayden?" I asked. Chiron winked.

"I had better go and monitor Ms. Cielo." He said, and wheeled back out.

Before Annabeth started ranting about how Chiron always told her everything, I butt in.

"So… who won our bet?" The irritation melted from her face, and she smirked.

"I did, of course. The Hunters had your entire team tied up, caught in a net, or backed into a corner." Annabeth looked from my bandaged head to my leg in a cast, "But since you ended up in the infirmary and we can't really do my date idea, I guess we'll have to go for that beach moonlight walk." She fake-sighed. I smiled triumphantly.

"Do I get my kiss for good luck now?" She crossed her arms.

"The game is over though." I shrugged.

"Well then make it a get well soon kiss." Annabeth laughed.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain." She said fondly, and leaned over to give me a proper good luck/get well soon kiss.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Please don't hate me! I'm sorry I haven't updated in nearly a month! Honestly, I have no good reason. My inspiration was fading, my time was getting short, I just wasn't able to write as often as I wanted to. Don't fear, for I will finish this story! It's nearly over, just a couple more chapters!**

* * *

**Calypso POV**

Percy had gotten out of the infirmary earlier that day. Word around the Aphrodite cabin was that him and Annabeth were going for a "romantic evening" down on the beach. Naturally, I wanted to come and watch.

To be honest, I wasn't sure why I was still doing this. I mean, I do like Percy. Not as much as I used to… this is all getting to be too much effort and work. But for some reason, I couldn't stop myself.

That night, I watched Percy escort Annabeth from her cabin down to the beach. I followed quietly behind them, and watched them at the shore from a place in the bushes. Moonlight was reflecting off of the water. It made Percy's hair shine, and Annabeth's look silver. I sighed.

"They look happy, yes?" I jumped as a melodious voice spoke from beside me. Standing in front of a tree wearing a very stylish, over the shoulder, rose dress.

"Ms. Dove?" I asked quietly. She giggled.

"Call me Aphrodite, love." Aphro… the goddess? Whoa.

"You're the goddess of love." I said. She smiled.

"Yes ma'am!" Aphrodite turned back to Percy and Annabeth, "They really are a lovely couple. I should know, I set them up myself!" She stated proudly. I stood and joined her underneath the tree where they couldn't see us.

"But wait, if you put them together in the first place, why were you helping me get between them?" I asked. This was really confusing…

"It is all a part of the natural order of things." She said vaguely, "You see, everything that has happened, has happened for a specific reason. I only helped it along." I crossed my arms.

"I don't understand." I said. She turned and walked a bit before sitting on a large rock and patting the space beside her.

"Sit." She said, "Let me tell you a tale of two lovers." I pursed my lips, but followed her anyways. Aphrodite placed her hands daintily on her knee, and took a breath.

"It all started many, many years ago, up on that hill with the pine." She said, pointing in the general direction, "Young Perseus, age twelve, had only just been shown the magical world that he was destined to be a part of. The minotaur was chasing after him, his mother, and his friend, Grover." I held up my hand to stop her.

"Wait, the Minotaur? As in, _the_ Minotaur?" Aphrodite nodded.

"Why of course! Do you know of another?" I shook my head. Percy had fought the Minotaur? Impressive.

"Please, go on." I said. Aphrodite smiled at me.

"Percy killed the Minotaur, but not before it could kill his mother."

"But Percy's mom isn't…" I interrupted.

"Patience! I'll get to that." Aphrodite snapped, "Now, as I was saying. Percy's mother had disappeared in a burst of light. Well it turns out that Hades had kidnapped her." I decided I shouldn't interrupt again to ask, "Percy collapsed on the porch of the Big House after the fight. For the next few days, he lay asleep in the infirmary while a certain blonde girl nursed him back to health."

"Annabeth." I said. She nodded, getting a misty look in her eyes.

"Well, it turns out that Zeus's master bolt had been stolen, and he believed that it was Percy who did it, as he is the only living demigod son of Poseidon, Zeus's brother." Aphrodite pulled out a compact mirror and checked the edges of her lipstick, "To make a long story short, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover all went on a quest to retrieve the bolt and clear Percy's name." She snapped the mirror closed, and looked at me, "I'll spare you all the gory details. It's rather boring, actually. There's so much action and adventure, yawn!" Aphrodite rolled her eyes, "One night, they were in a poacher's truck on the way to Vegas…" I opened my mouth, then closed it before she could yell at me again, "While Grover slept, Percy and Annabeth talked. They connected for the first time." In a smelly truck filled with animals? How romantic.

"Oh! I almost forgot! This entire time, Annabeth has a _huge_ crush on the Hermes head counselor, Luke, who helped bring her to camp when she was seven. That's important." Aphrodite said. She tapped her chin with a perfectly manicured nail, "Where was I? Oh, yes! Well, they finish the quest, return to camp, and Luke tries to kill Percy! An interesting twist, yes?" Interesting… that's one word to describe it, "Turns out Luke was working for the evil Titan lord, Kronos. Tragic really, he was a very handsome young lad." I get the feeling Aphrodite isn't the most considerate of people. Neither am I, really.

"But anyways, the next summer, Annabeth was going to meet up with Percy and see a movie before heading to camp. Oh it was going to be so cute! Too bad Percy's brother, the Cyclops, ruined it." She pursed her lips, "Annabeth wasn't fond of Tyson at first. He made her uncomfortable, especially after her run in with a larger Cyclops earlier in life. Percy was a bit embarrassed of him at first too. I'm getting off track here!" She giggled, "Well, they went on yet another boring quest to find the Golden Fleece. Annabeth was only just starting to realize that she had feelings for Percy, but of course she still had that huge crush on Evil Luke. Of course I could have stopped it, but it was just so… dramatic!" I am actually starting to feel sorry for Annabeth. Aphrodite put her through a lot.

"Eventually, Percy and Annabeth ended up on Circe's Isle. Annabeth got an absolutely gorgeous makeover, and Percy was turned into a guinea pig…"

"WHAT?!"

"Interrupting!" Aphrodite snapped again. She sniffed angrily, but continued with her story, "It was so cute. Percy thought she was pretty, but she just wasn't her. Now that's a sign of real love!" She giggled, her moment of anger forgotten, "And then of course they ran into the Sirens. Nasty birds, disgusting really!" She wrinkled her nose, "Annabeth, naïve young thing, wanted to hear them. She wanted to know her true desires, as that was what the Sirens sang about. I was watching, and I saw the most opportune moment for romance!" Aphrodite stated proudly, "I made sure that Percy forgot to take away Annabeth's knife when he tied her up. This led to her jumping right off the ship, swimming straight to her doom!" She clapped. I scooted a little bit away from her. She was starting to scare me, like a deranged Barbie doll.

"Naturally I had to make sure she didn't run into any debris or rocks as she swam closer. Percy, the hero he is, jumped right over and swam after her. It turns out that her one true desire was to rebuild the rest of the world, reunite her parents, and turn Luke good again." Aphrodite explained.

"Percy wasn't in the dream at all?" I asked. Aphrodite didn't seem to mind this question.

"Sadly, no. Not yet, anyways. I'm sure her desires now are different than they were." Aphrodite looked towards the two again, now splashing at each other on the shore, "Anyways, Percy pulled her underwater and made an air bubble to save her. When Annabeth realized what she had done, she started bawling her eyes out! There Percy and her sat, at the bottom of the lagoon, cuddling! It was so adorable!" She squealed, "Later, they reached the cave of the Cyclops. Annabeth got thrown into a pile of rocks, and Percy had to use the fleece to save her. Oh he was so scared for her, you could tell he loved her right then and there!" Aphrodite smiled, "After the quest, Annabeth kissed him for the first time. On the cheek, of course, but it's better than nothing." I widened my eyes.

"They went through all _that_ together, and they still weren't together?" Aphrodite laughed.

"We've only just begun this story, Calypso! Do remember, Luke is still in the picture." Wow, this really is a long story. Aphrodite pulled out a nail file and began fixing her already perfect nails.

"Oh, by the way, the fleece pulled young Thalia right out of that pine tree!" She said, pointing with the file to the tree, "It was such a happy moment! For a moment there, I considered pairing up Thalia with Luke, if he came back to our side that is, but I scrapped the idea. You'll see why." She said, "But anyways, the summer after, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia went to this school where Grover was undercover, to check out a pair of new demigods. Long story short, the two di Angelo kids…"

"Wait, di Angelo? As in Nico di Angelo?" Aphrodite nodded impatiently.

"Yes, yes, now shush!" She said, "Anyways, Annabeth and Percy ended up dancing together. Oh it was adorable!" She screeched, "That stupid manticore had to ruin it and pull Annabeth off of a cliff!" Whoa. That sentence…

"To make this short and snappy, Bianca, Nico's sister, joined the Hunter's of Artemis and went on a quest to save Artemis. Percy followed them because he knew they would find Annabeth when they found Artemis. I had to pay off Mr. D not to make him return to camp!" Aphrodite examined the hem of her dress as she spoke, "I came to Percy that quest, and I told him exactly what he needed to hear: that he needed to save Annabeth. He had convinced himself that he was going to save Artemis, but of course we all know that isn't true!" She giggled, "Sadly, Bianca died not soon afterwards. Pity really. It drove poor Nico crazy! Now that's a real shame because I had such a wonderful girl in mind for him… but I'm getting off topic. The group reached Mount Tam in due time, and they saved Annabeth. Her father showed up, pelting monsters with celestial bronze bullets from his plane, it was a real treat to watch!" Aphrodite clapped, "Then of course they found out that Nico was a son of Hades, which means a _third_ child that could possibly be in the Great Prophecy…"

"Great Prophecy?" I asked. Aphrodite clapped a hand over her mouth.

"That's right! You don't know about the prophecy yet!" She gasped, "Well, there was a Great Prophecy that foretold the fall of Olympus at the hand of a child of one of the Big Three: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. For a long time Percy was believed to be the child of the prophecy, but then Thalia showed up, and Nico as well!" Aphrodite shook her head.

"But enough of this, now where was I? Ah yes! Thalia ended up becoming a Hunter of Artemis, but Percy was freaking out because he believed that Annabeth was going to join! Of course that would mean she couldn't date him. I was worried there for a while too!" She was starting to ramble, and I was seriously starting to get bored.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked. Aphrodite rolled her eyes, looking at me like I was an idiot.

"I'm telling you the story of Percabeth! You must learn of their ups and downs in order to fully move on from the silly obsession that I forced on you…"

"You WHAT?!"

"Patience! Anyways, the next summer Annabeth, Percy, Tyson, and Grover went on a quest into the Labyrinth…" This woman was crazy! Absolutely nuts! It was HER fault that I've had such a huge crush on Percy?

"Annabeth was so worried, and Percy was there to comfort her… it was an adorable scene to watch!" Aphrodite gushed. Did these two ever get any privacy from her? "Later on they had to bring in Rachel Dare to help them. Annabeth was furious! She had good reason too, Rachel was beginning to realize that she had a crush on young Percy as well. Then Luke took on the spirit of Kronos, and Annabeth was confused about her feelings all over again." Aphrodite clapped, "I just love toying with her feelings! It's so easy, and makes for such good TV!" I had to bite my tongue to keep from replying.

"Percy started spending a lot more time with Rachel after that. She became his sort of… escape from the war, now that Kronos was awakened again. Just before Percy was called away on duty, Rachel kissed him! Oh if Annabeth had been there she would have been _furious!"_

"Then one of my very favorite Percabeth moments: when Percy took a dip in the River Styx, and became invincible! He had to focus on one thing to hold on to his humanity, and he chose Annabeth. It was so sweet I got a toothache!" She squealed.

"So… the thought of Annabeth… made Percy want to keep living?" I clarified. She nodded.

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever heard?!" It just might be, "After a lot of violence and fighting and blah, blah, blah, Annabeth ended up taking a knife for Percy! A poisoned dagger no less!"

"But I thought he was invincible?" Aphrodite nodded.

"Yes, yes he was. Except for one spot on the small of his back, which was just where Ethan Nakamura was aiming for. Annabeth didn't even know this though! She got a _feeling_ that he was in danger, and she saved his life! I didn't even send her the feeling!" Aphrodite sounded like a serious fangirl.

"Well, we won the war of course, and Percy was offered godhood! Annabeth was scared out of her wits! Naturally, he turned it down for her."

"WHAT?!" I whisper-shouted, "Percy could have been a freaking _Greek God_, but he gave it up for _Annabeth?_" Now THAT, is the sweetest thing I've ever heard!

"Of course! It's a pity, Percy would have become a wonderful immortal boyfriend if I ever got tired of Ares… such a shame." That's kind of gross, "Later that night, Annabeth came to Percy with a birthday cake, and the two _finally _kissed! Annabeth made the first move, naturally." I had suspected that. Percy was kind of an idiot when it came to girls, "The entire camp was watching! They threw them in the canoe lake afterwards!" She laughed, "Percy ended up making an air bubble down below. So romantic, yes?" Actually, yes.

"But Hera couldn't just let my romantic story end!" Aphrodite groaned, "She had to go and make Percy disappear for months with amnesia! It was the most I could do to at least allow him to remember Annabeth!"

"That's where he disappeared to!" Aphrodite glared at me.

"Don't interrupt!" She repeated, "Anyways, long story short, Percy and Annabeth reunited in the Roman version of Camp Half-Blood, went on a harrowing quest to Rome, and ended up falling into the pits of Tartarus!"


End file.
